The Legend OFF Spyro
by Wolfwaffe
Summary: What do you expect when you lay in bed for the night rest? Not ending up in black void with sinister quiet whispers surrounding you. Then a powerful voice sends you on a mission to purify the world, assigning someone called Batter to guide you. Worst part - it's not a dream, the world's corruption is real, and the time is short. Meanwhile, a young purple dragon seeks his destiny...
1. Chapter 1 - A Stab of Adventure

Say, what do you expect when you lay in bed for the night rest?

I guess not ending up in black void with strange, sinister quiet whispers surrounding you.

Then there is a voice, which sounds like it comes from inside my head.

 **"** **What is your name?"**

"Alexandr."

 **"** **Are you a boy or girl?"**

Huh. "I'm a boy… last time I checked, at least." Why am I not so sure anymore? What a weird dream. But dreams are supposed to be weird, aren't they?

 **"** **Welcome, Alexandr."** Says the voice, " **You have been chosen for a mission of great importance."** Uh-huh. **"Your mission is to purify the world from corruption that poisons it. We have assigned a being known as the Batter to aid you in your mission."** A ghostly figure of a tall man in white shirt, pants and black sports shoes and baseball cap. Suitably for his name, he held a baseball bat in his hand. **"He will make sure you succeed."** the image disappeared, **"We will drop you in the area known as The Swamp. Find the Batter for further instructions. Good luck"**

* * *

Uh, my eyes hurt… Everything fades from white as I'm trying to rub the pain out. Why do I feel so strange? What in the world is going o-"HOLY!~"

Alright, I'm officially freaked out. Not by giant mushrooms surrounding me, but, rather, by my own appearance. First, I had a MUZZLE. A lizard-like muzzle. Second, I had scales. Small, soft scales covering my whole body, with larger, tougher plates covering my chest and belly. Third, I was a quadruped. Alright, I can go on forever, but you get the point. I was no longer a human, but something else. What I did not know. A lizard of sort?

Breathe, Alexandr, breathe. Calm down, it's just a weird dream you're having. I'm pretty sure if you try hard enough you can shift back to your human form – or wake up, perhaps. Come on, focus…

Nothing happens. Oh well, then perhaps I should give in to this dream and let it do whatever my wandering mind wants me to. Most likely I won't even remember it when I wake up in the morning.

Still nothing!

Well then maybe I can move around myself?

Yeah, alright. It's surprisingly easy to move around on four limbs. Awkward, but easy. But there also was a feeling that I'm lacking something important. Ah, I'll figure it out eventually, now… Now, I think I'm just going to go with the flow, as they say. Perhaps I'm not yet practiced enough to have fully conscious dreams, but hey, it's not very often when you have control over yourself in your dreams. For now, I'll just go for the small clearing just a bit ahead. Still I need to get used to this quadruped body.

Hey, there's a person!

"H-hey!" I call them. They turn around and instantly I'm freaked out even more. It's a human male, black sports shoes, white pants and shirt and black baseball cap… And with four eyes. Two smaller ones of unnatural yellow color and black sclera look down on me, while other two of pale grayish-blue look around.

"…" I almost could hear the ellipsis in the look he gave me, "You are Alexandr." He states blankly, looking at me with all four of his eyes now.

"A-and you must be the Batter," I reply, feeling slightly awkward "Nice to meet you."

"You are not what I was expecting," he states with the same blank expression.

"I'm not sure this is what I was expecting, too" I raised my front paw, trying to make a confused gesture. He remains silent, so I continue, "I think I was told you'll help me with my mission. I'm supposed to save this land…"

"To _purify_ this land," he corrects me, "Yes. I am. Unfortunately, I'm having less than physical presence in this world, so it's up to you to do the job." He pauses, his 'normal' eyes look around before turning back on, "This body of yours… What was your original form?"

"Similar to yours. Maybe a bit shorter…"

"This complicates things." He rubs his chin and looks around some more, "Your mission will take you into different regions of this corrupted war-torn world. There always will be a possibility of hostile beings attacking you. Do you know how to…" he paused, "What am I saying. You can't even move around efficiently in this body."

"What?!"

"You can't move around efficiently in this form, because it's unfamiliar - _unnatural_ to you," he stated, "This clearing is safe. Practice some basic movement here. Walking, running, jumping. Sidestepping. Get comfortable with your form."

"You are right," I sighed, "And I sure hope this clearing is safe."

Time passes as I'm getting familiar with this body. What seemed to be early morning shifts to almost midday, mushrooms providing nice shade from the sun. After hours of walking, running and jumping around the Batter – who was watching me with same stoic expression – I finally felt like I'm ready to proceed.

"Alright, what's nex-woah!" He kneeled and grabbed my paw and took a closer look at it. I had four fingers, including opposed thumb, each finger ending with a sharp claw.

"You seem to have some natural weapons. That's good." He released my paw and pointed at one of the smaller mushrooms, that was slightly taller than him, "I want you to destroy it."

"Die, 'shroom!" I hissed and slashed at it with my claws. Or I tried, at least. Turns out that, first, quadruped front limbs don't really work in exact same way human limbs work, and second, the mushroom was much tougher than I expected. My claws barely dented it and got stuck in its bark – do mushrooms have bark?

"Why." the Batter blankly stated before facepalming.

"Come on!" I growled and managed to liberate my claws from the treacherous mushroom, "That's a perfect and easy way to start an adventure. We all had our first times, right?"

"Well I never been a quadruped, so I can't tell how it is to be one for a first time," he stated blankly, "And I've never been on so-called adventure." he added after short pause.

"Hey, do you mind if I ask… Do you ever emote?" I looked back at him before returning to the mushroom and slashing at it again, this time with much better results.

"Waste of energy and time," he shrugged and continued to watch my attempts to defeat the mushroom.

Well it took much less time than it took me to get accustomed to motion. The mushroom was defeated in less than an hour, and I got a good idea on how to strike with my paws. In addition, there was some strange pulsation in my body, something ached to get out, but I had no idea what it was.

"Good," the Batter looked at shredded mushroom, "Now when you have some idea how to fight, it's time for you to learn the way of purification."

 _Battle_ _time._

"In battle it is important to know when to strike" Said Batter, "Try attacking me now."

"Alright, if you say so," I swing my paw at him, claws connect and… nothing happens.

"Nice. Striking without a second thought. You'll make a great purifier," He nodded to me, and seeing my confusion continued, "But if you truly want to hurt a specter, you'll need to channel your _purity_ into your weapon. It takes time, which is _shown by this small line here_ " He pointed at the black bar in the bottom center of my vision that was filling with white… Wait, what? "This is a visual representation of your readiness. Your will to attack adversaries will cause your _purity_ to flow through your body towards your weapons – in your case, claws. You will only see this bar when in combat. Try hitting me when it _all turns white_."

Alright, here it goes. I swing my other paw, this time claws leave a burning white trail behind them… And still no effect on Batter.

"Nice one. Had I been impure, I'd felt that one" He nodded again, "Now this," he pointed at _red bar_ that appeared _in the upper left corner of my vision_ , "Is your _lifeforce_. When enemies hit you, it will drain. Allow me to demonstrate" He swung his bat at me, hitting my shoulder. About half of my lifeforce bar gone in an instant. And it did hurt like hell, making me cringe and fall on my chest, placing my paw on a bruised spot.

"Augh! I think I should've wake up from that!" I hissed through clenched teeth.

"Uh… I think I overdid that a bit. Here, have this," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a few slips of paper, "These are _luck tickets_. Use one to _heal_ yourself."

I took the tickets, wondering where I can put them. Taking a closer look at one, I suddenly saw letters appear on it. **'You will succeed'** , they wrote out, and then the ticket burst into flame, turning into ash. Warmth filled my hand – err, paw, and the red bar was refilled. The pain was gone, and I felt much better.

"Umm, Batter? I don't have any place to keep them." I said. He nodded and took the rest of the tickets for keeping for the time.

"Good," the Batter nodded, "One last thing you need to learn is the _Competences_. These are skills that will help you in your mission. Right now, I'll teach you the _Wide Angle_ competence." Bring it on, I thought.

"First, redirect your purity from your claws to your eyes." Alright, uh… how do I do that?.. I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate… and felt something slap my face and stick to it. Opening my eyes, I saw a piece of strange, unnaturally _sickly-yellow meat_ , which promptly fell on the ground. The Batter shook his head, " _Falling asleep_ in combat is the worst thing you can do. Do not fall asleep in combat."

"I wasn't sleeping, I was concentrating"

"Concentrate with your eyes open. You don't want to miss a hit from your opponent."

Alright, let's try that again. There! I feel something stirring inside me! Aha, there is my purity – I guess it is my purity?.. Well, I found some energy. Was that the same thing that was trying to get out after I was done with a mushroom? Maybe. Now if you kindly… move… to… my… eyes… Oh yes, finding it was much easier than making it move where I want it to.

"Now use your inner sight, give an unfocused look to your surroundings."

What?

This very moment I felt a sharp burst of pain below my eyes… And then the world changed for a moment. I saw everything on the clearing me and the Batter were on. And by everything I do not mean just objects, but also… their… stats?

 _The Batter – L50 HP ? CP ?  
An incarnation of purification.  
Resists ectoplasm. Weak to memories._

 _Alpha, Omega, Epsilon  
Batter's ever-loyal add-ons. _

"Uhh, add-ons?" I looked around trying to find them.

"…" the Batter looked slightly concerned, "Yes. I forgot that Wide Angle will reveal more than could be seen by simple eyes."

"But what are those?" I asked. "They help me on my mission" was the answer.

"Alright. Is there anything else you want me to teach? Oh wait, let me guess," I pointed at the slightly depleted _green bar right below my health bar_ , "This is my energy or something, right?"

"Your _Competence Points_ ," the Batter corrected me, "Watch them closely. The _Competences_ can turn the tides of battle in your favor, but if you will run out of _Competence_ _Points_ in the middle of a tough fight, or if you enter a fight without them, the outcome may not be in your favor. Here, have this," he reached his hand to me, holding another piece of meat – this one had a shining silver color. I looked at it closely. It smelled strangely sweet. "Should I eat it?" "Yes. This is _Silver Flesh_. It will restore your CPs." Alright, here goes nothing. I bite the piece of meat hard and chew it for a few moments. These teeth feel odd, they are not made for grinding food, more like tearing it. My mouth fills with sickly sweet flavor with slightly metallic aftertaste as I swallowed the piece of meat. I'm not sure I liked it, but my energy – or, rather, _Competence Points_ – has been restored to full.

* * *

 _Competence – Wide Angle  
Alexandr – L1 HP 100 CP 25  
A dragon purifier in training._

"So… What now?" Alexandr asks his mentor.

"Just go somewhere" the Batter.

"So, you don't know?" Alexandr tilted his head, "A-alright… What am I supposed to do? I know I have to purify this world, but… how?"

"Find the royal guardians of this world and defeat them."

"Alright…" He shrugged and sighed, "Well, let's go… umm… That-a-way."

* * *

Well, that was interesting. This Batter guy had no idea on where to go. Alright, think, Alexandr, think. Well, there is some kind of a pathway here, so let's follow it. Sure it will at least lead us somewhere.

Like to the riverbank.

Well, at least I can try to make out my current form in the water. I mean, it's not as reflective as people think it is, but still. I walk to the water (and get somewhat unapproving look from the Batter), and take a look. Huh. So apparently I'm some sort of a horned-lizard thing. Well, I'd call myself a dragon, if I had wings. But I had none. But as is, I had quite sleek shape – almost _feminine_ – but still looked bulky enough. My muzzle – or should I call it face? – somewhat narrow and long, ending with surprisingly blunt nose. My forehead was shallow, and generally, like the rest of the head was kinda wide. I had two large, sharp horns on my head, placed just right for me to ram something – or someone, or throw something up in the air. A pair of smaller horns – or what is it called? – were located behind my cheeks, slightly above and behind jaw joint. As for my body, as said earlier, was light, lithe build, yet it had strange sense of power to it. And my tail had a small vertical spear-like formation on it. Yeah, I could've been a dragon… If I had wings. But I had none.

The only strange thing about me was the color of my scales. They were white. And I don't mean like snow-white, no, I mean unnaturally white. 255/255/255 white. And then there was this odd tint or something, which made me look like I had a black outline, like a cartoon character. That made me a freaky stand-out on the landscape, the sore spot that immediately attracted attention. At least my eyes remained grayish-green.

"What are you doing?" I heard the Batter say, "We got work to do."

"Alright, let's go then," I shrugged and continued along with the path that led us further into the swamp, away from the river.

That was where I had my first true encounter with enemies.

Well, sort of enemies. At first I though they were just pitcher plants, but when I approached them they suddenly jumped out of the ground and hobbled towards me.

"W-woah!" I jumped back as one of those things swiped its tongue at me.

 _Competence – Wide Angle  
Frogweed x3 – HP 15 CP 5  
An aggressive carnivorous plant that feeds on insects and dragonflies._

"Purification in progress," said the Batter.

Alright, let's see. Wait to charge, and strike. My claws slice through plant fiber, tearing its pitcher with white trails. With a single strike the frogweed was destroyed, leaving me with two more plants. They swiped their tongues at me again, but seeing how they telegraphed their attacks like an hour in advance, I had no difficulty dodging them. Another swipe, another weed goes down. Nice. I think I'm getting a hang of it. For the last one, I tried and redirected my purity into the spearhead on my tail and did a quick – but clumsy – 360 turn, slapping the weed with my tail and, to my surprise, tearing it in half.

"Adversaries purified," said the Batter.

"Well that's one way to truly begin our adventure," I said, smiling at the Batter. He looked at me with the same stoic neutral expression, "What?"

"I wouldn't be as careless as you are," He noted, "You have important mission to complete."

"Yeah, right. I forgot you got zero emotions. Let's go." I shrugged.

"Are you sure you don't know where we should go?" I asked the Batter, "It's close to dusk and we've got nowhere yet, only met more of those weed-things." He only shrugged with the same stoic expression as usual. I sighed, "Yeah, right. Be that way."

"I hear something" he suddenly stopped. I stopped too and listened really hard. Yes, someone was nearby. Although it wasn't speech as is, more like some yelps and howls, but it kinda seemed oddly… sentient.

"I have a bad feeling about this," I mumble, and the Batter nods, "Let's proceed with caution."

And of course, we only make a dozen of steps and all caution turns out to be for naught.

Several creatures dropped down on us out of nowhere – well, from the top of the giant mushrooms surrounding us. They seem to be baboons, only wearing some rags and some of them got pieces of armor on them. One of them, the largest one, must be their leader, says with an evil smile, "Well-well-well, what do we have here? Another one of them lizards," he chuckles, his deep, threatening voice makes me hiss instinctively defensively. I really hoped that I'm not dealing with proverbial monkeys with grenades, "Too bad someone already tore your wings off, whelp. I'd very much enjoy doing that myself… Get him!"

"Purification in progress" came the Batter's voice. The creatures charged at me, and I barely managed to dodge them, making them collide as they tried to pounce on me.

 _Competence – Wide Angle  
Ape Grunts x10 – HP 50 CP 10  
Cannon fodder for the Dark Army_

 _Ape Lieutenant – HP 150 CP 50  
A commander of ape squad_

"Batter, there's too many of them for me to deal with!" I yelp quickly, I only see five of ape grunts, but there are five more somewhere nearby, "I can't fight ten-on-one fight!" I wait a moment and slash at nearest grunt. White streaks tear through his body, throwing him off-balance, and I heard the sound of tearing flesh. Disgusting. While he struggles with his wound, other four apes charge at me, throwing punches at me. My scales provide surprisingly good defense, despite being softer than I thought dragon scales would be, but still some of the punches are quite painful. Come on purity, charge faster, I though while trying to avoid getting hit too much. Another slash, another ape stumbles. Two apes somewhat incapacitated, eight more to go. Oh and commander is there too, but all he does is yells orders. Oh. Oh!

I jump over the group of apes, one of them barely missing me mid-pounce, another manages to hit my knee – ouch, I felt that – and run towards the commander. I feel purity in my claws, and I slash at him, tearing through cloth and iron and flesh. He lets out a pained yelp, growls and… Wait, when did he get a club?!

The world went grayscale around me, my vision was filled with colored dots and my head rang. All the air went out of my lungs in a loud "GHHHHH" as his club connected with my chest. For a moment I felt weightless, and then another impact brought me back to my senses as I collided with one of the mushrooms. I coughed and wheezed, that wasn't good at all. I felt the Batter kneeling next to me, showing something in my paw… Oh, right, the Luck Ticket!

 **'** **Success is inevitable'**

Much better. I jump back on all fours, just in time to take a pounce from one of the grunts. He tried to cling to my back, but I'd have none of it. I jumped and that got him off my back. Now, let's try clawing their leader again, but this time let's try not get hit by his club. Avoiding his grunts, I once again closed my distance to him. I slash at him and miss, white streaks passing an inch too far from his body. He swings his club, but I somehow manage to dodge to the side, him hitting another grunt and sending him flying.

"Homerun" I heard the Batter through yell of thrown ape.

My heart beats so fast and hard, it's a surprise it didn't break through my chest plates yet. I watch the leader close, and dodge his second swing. My purity is ready again, I throw another slash at him, and, while it connects, he manages to connect his club with my chest. Again.

"GHHHHH" I say as the air gets pushed from my lungs and I'm flying away and collide with the ground this time. I feel tears in my eyes. And again, I feel Batter's hand giving me another ticket. However, this time he holds me down. "That's the last one I have. It seems that I overestimated your fighting abilities. I suppose you should take the coward's option."

"What would that be?" I ask standing up.

"Flee."

"Oh." Realization struck me, "Alright, I'd love to have some more fun with you guys" I say out loud as I jumped to the side, making an ape fall flat on his face, "But I have milk boiling over!" With that I dashed off the path and into the mushroom thicket.

"Get him!" I heard the commander's pained roar behind. I must've got him hard there, "I will inform Cynder about this whelp!"

* * *

Once there was a singer who said 'You'll become a composer should life force you'. I never though I could run so fast and swift. Perhaps it has something to do with this body – my spine feels like a spring that aids in propelling my body in the right direction. I'm just surprised that Batter is able to keep up with my speed. What actually keeps bothering me... With all that pain I went through, shouldn't I already wake up?

Really, I should've learned from my past mistakes not to think too hard when moving. I heard Batter yell something like "Watch it!", and next thing I know my body collides with a tree, once again the impact leaves me breathless for a moment and knocking me off my feet.

And then the bloody tree moves.

It turns around, and I see something resembling a face. Angry face. It reaches behind its back, pulls out a very, VERY big club. Scratch that, that's more like walking stick made out of whole pine tree. It gets ready to swat me with it.

Fear. Paralyzing fear strikes me at this moment. Wake up Alexandr, I think as I watch the giant moving his weapon down on me. Wake up, wake up, wakeup wakeup wakeup _wakeupwakeup_ …

Just a second before the impact I fee something push me hard in my flank, throwing me away from lethal strike.

 _Wakeupwakeupwakeupwakeupwakeup_ was the only thing in my mind, why wasn't I…

SLAP!

That sound brings me back to my senses – somewhat.

I open my eyes and see Batter looking down on me – with same stoic expression. There is a piece of that sickly-yellow meat he threw at me earlier today, during our training. "W-what?"

"You were mumbling 'wake up' at very fast pace. I thought some _Belial's meat_ would help."

"…" I could hear gears grinding in my head. I took that meat slapped on my face and take a bite of it. I don't feel any different. Oh crap. "Batter…" I ask him, my voice begins to tremble, "T-this… I… I'm n-not dreaming a-all t-this-s, am-m I?"

"You are very much awake and lucid. _Pure,_ even."

"S-so… If you wouldn't push me a-away there… I c-could've d-die?" I ask looking at the tree-thing, who seemed to loose me from its sight.

"Yes. But…"

I couldn't hear the rest of his phrase. I COULD HAVE DIED THERE. The realization struck me like a thunder. I am not sleeping, this is not a dream, and definitely not a safe adventure – heck, I'm not sure if I even want to call it 'adventure' anymore!

Oh and while I had this realization, apes found us. 'Us' being me, Batter and the tree-thing.

No thanks. Knowing that I can die I'd rather take the coward's option, thank you very much.

* * *

Batter was trying to tell me something, but I didn't listen. Right now I need to get away from the chase and find more of those ' _luck tickets_ ' so the danger of dying is not as close.

But where do I find them? Maybe Batter knows. I should probably ask him when it's safe.

And then my leg slips on the mud.

O good, I never ever learn, do I?

The slippery mud sends me tumbling downhill, past mushrooms, straight through shrubbery – I'm going to feel those scratches – and then I hear someone gasping.

"Augh!"

"Oof!" And it seems that I come to a stop thanks to that someone being that one immovable obstacle in my path. Well, not so immovable, seeing how I've toppled whoever it was, the impact left me dazed.

"Get off me!" I hear young, energetic and gentle voice coming from somewhere below me. Whoever it is, he does his best to throw me off. I'd gladly comply, but with the entire struggle I'm having hard time deciding where to move. Finally with one swift kick in my belly – ouch – the one I toppled managed to get me off him. Then it was my turn to be pinned down.

"Woah, woah, wait up bro" I hear another voice, deeper and somewhat little bit nasal, "I don't think this is one of them apes."

"I see that now, Sparx," first voice sounds and I feel pressure being released from my back. I slowly get up, my stomach still hurts a bit after the kick, and my legs are shaky from all the running.

Before me stands a dragon, definitely a dragon, seeing how he's quadruped, covered in scales and has wings. His scales are vibrant purple; the scale plates on his neck, chest and belly are golden. His muzzle is short and stout, head rather large and round, with big amethyst-colored eyes. A pair of ridged golden-orange horns tops his head, curling a bit to the back with tips pointing up top. There also are fins on his head, going all the way down to his tail, which ends with a pine-cone shaped growth. His wings are small and skeletal in appearance, with bright orange membranes. And he's somewhat shorter than me. He must be a very young dragon then.

"So what such a pretty lady like you doing here all alone?" says the second voice – apparently Sparx. I wanted to say that I'm not a lady, but all that came out of my mouth was a pathetic "Hhh…"

"Oh you're speechless, I see. Can't blame you though, it's not often you meet a handsome guy like me"

I look around franticly trying to find the source of the voice. Instead, I find something I'd rather not see. Apes coming from the mushroom grove.

"HHHH!" again, pathetic wheezing escapes my mouth, pointing behind the dragon.

"Purification in progress" again, this comes from the Batter.

Oh come on. Alright, let's estimate our chances for victory here.

 _Competence – Wide Angle  
Ape Grunts x8 – HP 50 CP 10  
Cannon fodder for the Dark Army_

 _Spyro the Dragon – HP 200 CP 100  
A dragon raised by dragonflies. Breathes fire._

What.

 _Sparx the Dragonfly – HP 100 CP 100  
Spyro's adoptive brother._

Okay.

That was something.

And while I was busy using wide angle on the battlefield, Spyro already charged at the apes, indeed breathing a jet of flames at them. "Let's hope I'm friendly fire-proof" I thought to myself, cringing internally from how bad the pun was. Without any back thought I jump at nearest ape and lash my claws on him. He flies back and don't move anymore. I switch to next target, picking the one running around with his tail on fire. In the corner of my vision I see Spyro throwing ape into the air using his horns. I should try that sometime, but now let's just deal with attackers. And another slash leaves ape with burning tail lying unmoving in the mud. I begin to feel sorry for them, but this has to be suppressed now. When the next ape fell to me (courtesy of Spyro charging poor shmuck and hitting him with horns) he dropped a pouch full of some strange red crystals. Before I knew, the crystals scattered from the pouch and those that fell near me were dragged to my paws and disappeared with red glow. And all the sudden, I feel much better, pain is gone and my throat feels no more like dried sandpaper.

"Adversaries purified," I hear the Batter's voice again.

Huh, that was quick. Spyro sure made me look bad there. Why was I chosen for that mission then? I can't even…

"Hey, are you alright?" says Spyro coming to me, "Sorry I kicked you. You scared me when you jumped on me."

"I-I'm fine," I say, my voice is raspy from all the events I've been through, "S-shaken, but fine"

"Wait-wait-wait, what?" I hear Sparx's voice again, full of shock. A small ball of yellow light flies into my view. Oh. Sparx the dragonfly. "You… You are a _DUDE_?!" I indeed see a glowing dragonfly, pointing finger at me, his eyes bigger than his head from shock, mouth agape.

"Yes, I am. You got problems with that, sparky?" I snarl and cough. Okay, this is not a good time to be snarling.

"…" I could hear him saying ellipsis. His hand slowly drops and he continues staring at me.

"Sparx, let him be. He must have been chased by those apes," Spyro turns to his brother and then back to me, "I'm Spyro, and this is my brother, Sparx. Who are you?"

"Nice to meet you, Spyro, Sparx," I nod and take a few more breaths. I think I'm not as shaken now. "I-I'm Alexandr. And this is Batter," I point at my mentor with my paw.

Spyro tilts his head a bit, "There's nobody there."

"But he's standing right here!" I look at Batter.

"You are the only one who can see me" He replies, resting his bat on his shoulder, "As I said, my presence in this world is limited. But I can see and hear them."

"Oh. He says that only I can see him, but he can see and hear you." I say.

A short silence followed.

"Great. Not only he's a guy who looks like a girl, but he's also a loon" Sparx shakes his head and facepalms.

"Oh don't say you never had an imaginary friend?" I ask in a teasing tone, "Especially since I got no real friends…"

"We can be your friends," Spyro suggested, "well, we can at least try. Uh, mind if I ask, do you know what I am? S-since you are a first being we meet that's not trying to kill us…"

"You look like a dragon to me," I shrugged, "Oh. Don't tell me you thought you are a dragonfly?" He looks away for a moment with uneasy smile, "Yeah. I'm not judging, pal. It's alright." I pause, feeling awkward. Socializing never was my thing, "Where were you two heading?"

"I'm trying to find who I am," Spyro said, "I don't know where we're going. We just hope to find someone who knows something about who I am and where I'm from, but so far we only found apes and swamp giants. And you are?"

"I'm on a holy mission to purify this world from corruption!" I say somewhat proudly, "Oh..." Suddenly I look down on the ground in shame, "I just realized how stupid that sounds."

At this moment I could feel both Sparx and Batter glare at me.

"Bro, I'm telling you, he's a loon!" Sparks hisses, waving his small arms, "He has this imaginary friend and thinks he has some holy-doly mission. I say we just leave him here and go."

"We can't leave him all alone, Sparx," Spyro shakes his head, "And he doesn't look dangerous. Or crazy."

"I'm right here, you know," I grumble.

"If you want, you can join us," the purple dragon invited. "Bro, don't. You're going to regret that" said Sparx.

"Sure, I'll join you" I nodded, "It's safer to travel in group."

 _You have joined Spyro and Sparx party!_

"Yeah, whatever" Sparx shugged.

* * *

Somewhere amidst the endless black void, a tiny white figure limps, looking around franticly, stopping every now and then to catch its breath.

"Where did he go?.." it mutters in weary, hissing whisper.


	2. Chapter 2 - Empty Temple

Of course, we didn't get very far.

A deafening roar came from above, and a menacing shadow flew by.

"Waaah!" Spyro yelled.

"Gah!" I gasped as we both dashed forward into a mushroom grove.

"Wooah calm down Sparx, go to your happy place!" I heard the dragonfly scream.

We hid below thick cluster of mushrooms and waited for a bit.

"What in the world was that thing?" I whispered.

"I dunno," Sparx replied, wiping his forehead, "But I'm going this way" He pointed deeper into the mushroom forest, "As far away from it as possible." And then he dashed there.

"Sparx, wait up!" said Spyro as we followed his brother.

We ran for a short while and ended up near a small hole in the ground. Of course, Sparx just had to go there.

"So do we go in?" I ask, almost rhetorically.

"We are, I'm not leaving my brother there on his own," Spyro responded as he squeezed his body through the hole. I sighed and followed him. This body is strange. For a moment I felt my bones shift to allow me to squeeze through – I barely made it through. And, to my surprise, this small hole actually led to a larger cave that surely led somewhere. To the left was a tunnel going… somewhere. I don't know where. To the right, however…

"Wow. And I thought you were big." I heard Sparx's voice.

I looked in the direction of his voice and saw another dragon. I felt my jaw drop slowly. This dragon was huge. Both I and Spyro were barely up to his knees, or, rather elbows, or whatever it's called, and even Batter looked small comparing to him – considering me and Spyro being around waist-high to Batter. Well, not that Batter was impressed by that dragon though.

His scales were of orange-red shade. Massive pale orange scale plates covered his chest and underbelly. Strange fins grew on his shoulders. His horns were shaped much like Spyro's but were larger. There were fins on his head, going down his neck and back, all the way to tail tip, which ended with a wicked blade.

"You… You're alive?" he asked in soft, gentle voice, his dull orange eyes sparked with something for a moment when he saw Spyro. The spark died quickly though, "But it doesn't matter anymore. It's too late now, too late… All is lost…"

 _Competence – Wide Angle_

 _Ignitus the Fire Dragon – HP ? CP ?_

 _A depressed old dragon. Guardian of fire._

"A fire dragon named Ignitus" I mumbled and looked at Batter, "Is this guardian you were talking about?"

"No," he replied.

"What do you mean, too late?" In the meantime, Spyro bombarded Ignitus with questions, "Who am I? Who are you? Too late for what? What is lost?"

The big dragon looked at Spyro confused. "You… You don't know?.."

"I-I think I know I'm a dragon…" Spyro began, but got interrupted by Ignitus. He stood up and looked down at purple dragon.

"Not just any dragon. You are a PURPLE dragon," His eyes sparked with life again momentarily, "One that is born once in ten generations… But it's too late to change anything." His head hangs low and he sighs, "I am Ignitus… I am the one who failed you…. Failed all of the dragonkind…"

"So wait, you're saying that Spyro here is somehow special because he's that 'once-in-a-purple' thing?" Said Sparx in a mocking tone, hands on his waist - uh, do dragonflies HAVE waist? "Don't be ridiculous. If anything, he's just overweight."

"How did you fail me? We've just met!" Spyro came closer to the red dragon, "Please, Ignitus, I have to know!"

"Well…" Ignitus responds, "If you insist…"

And then he tells his story. How he was one of the four elemental guardians of the Dragon Temple. How they were keeping the eggs safe. How they waited for a legendary purple dragon to hatch. How dark army came and how he, Ignitus, abandoned his duties to save one purple egg, the one that contained Spyro. How he returned and foud the temple in utter mess, all the eggs crushed by apes. The same apes we were fighting. At this point I somewhat drifted into some kind of angry trance. I'm not sure how, or what was going on. I just wanted to get out there and kill every single one of those apes. I felt something stirring deep inside of me. Some strange, distant incoherent whisper…

"…And we were successful at first. But then… Cynder came." I awakened from my trance and saw Ignitus hanging his head low again.

"Who's that Cynder? I heard that name before," I asked, coming closer.

"What?" It seems Ignitus only just noticed my presence. Instantly his eyes went wide from shock "By the Ancestors… Child… What happened to you? Where are your wings?"

"Good question." With even better answer, I added mentally, "I don't know" I said, looking back. Well indeed, there were small stubs where wings should have been, but there were none, "I guess I was born that way."

Ignitus shook his head, "Poor child… What is your name?"

"Oh never mind him, he's just some loon Spyro here picked up in the swamp" I heard Sparx saying.

"My name is Alexandr," I say, lowering my head in – hopefully – respective gesture, "I am on a mission to purify the world from corruption. I am guided by Batter here, but you can't see him," I continued. Ignitus gave me a confused look. I sighed, "I know it doesn't make much sense, but…"

"But you're just cra-zy!" Sparx interrupted me, flying in front of my face.

"Anyway!" I exclaim, waving my paw at him. The dragonfly just dodges and sticks out tongue at me. "Who is that Cynder?"

"A powerful, violent and cruel monster, servant of the Dark Master" Ignitus continued, closing his eyes and letting out a pained sigh, "A dark dragon. Wherever she showed up, our forces were left scattered. She already captured the rest of us guardians. And all the dragons who survived are hiding in fear of her."

"You, too?" I tilt my head slightly.

"I'm living here in a willing exile. It's too late to change anything now…"

"Sounds like old man given up" Sparx shrugged, "I guess we'll go home then."

"No. We can't just leave!" Spyro turned to me. I nodded in agreement, "Please, Ignitus! I want to know – I want to see where I'm from."

"No, no, I can't… The temple is overrun, it's not safe," was the old dragon's response as he laid back down.

"Good! Let's go home then!"

"Shut it, Sparx" I snarled and came closer to Ignitus, "Look, Ignitus. You keep saying 'too late, too late', but come on – Spyro, the special purple dragon, or something, is here, alive and well," I pause for a short while. Old dragon looks at me with some… unsure expression. Ok, don't make this awkward, Alexandr "So maybe there is some hope for whatever is happening. I'm kind of out the loop on the whole thing. And maybe there are some things that may seem strange about me or – to some – crazy" I glare at Sparx, "Alright, giving speeches is not my thing. But I want you to know this: It's only too late when you completely give up on everything. And if you do…" I make another pause. His eyes are locked on mine. There is power behind them, I feel uneasy, I want to break the contact, but not before I deliver the final line, "…Then you've not only failed your kind for the second time… But you also betrayed all the hopes of the survivors." I sighed loudly and finally broke eye contact.

"Mmmh, got to admit. His speech was lame, but the Loon does have a point" came another remark from the dragonfly.

"Come on, Ignitus," Spyro said in insisting manner, "I want to help in any way I can."

The red dragon laid there motionless for a minute, then let out a deep sigh.

"Very well, young Spyro. Follow me; I'll lead you to the temple." He stood up and walked down the tunnel he was laying next to.

And even though his voice remained the same, I saw a faint spark of life in his eyes.

* * *

The tunnel led to a large round door, which Ignitus opened using his fire breath. He lit braziers on the sides of the door and it opened. Must be some sort of magic. I'm still new to this world. However, the next door he tried to open did not give in. He sighed and shook his head.

"As I expected. Do you see these statues?" He pointed at cylindrical totem-like structures resembling a dragon, "There are supposed to be two on the other side. When they are all positioned correctly, the door should open. But the apes must have dislocated them. The heathens…" Once again his head hung low.

"Yeah, well, I never was good with geometry. What do you want from us?" spat Sparx in annoyed tone.

"If you could get inside and place the statues back in place, the door will open again," was the red dragon's answer.

"Oh, right," Sparx facepalmed, "How are we going to get in if the doors are locked?"

"There is a small tunnel animals use to access the caverns." he pointed his paw at the cavern wall. Indeed, there was a small opening, located above the on ledge. It was all covered by entangled roots, "I won't be able to get through it, but you two…" he looked at Spyro and then at me, "You could use it find a way inside."

"And put the statues back to their place. Got it." Spyro nodded.

"I'm not sure I can jump that high though" I shook my head, "I'll try though."

"Yeah, animals and stuff, alright" Sparx rubbed his chin, then waved off, "You know what, do that and I'll wait here."

"Wait for a moment, Alexandr, I'll try to smash those roots" I watched Spyro move towards the ledge and jump up. Then, he used his wings to give him slight boost, and afterwards he flapped them again, sending him into a quick spin. His claws and tail flashed bright orange for a second and the web of roots was smashed to pieces. I felt… jealous? Yes, that's the word.

"Alright, jump up here" Spyro called me. Right. I moved to the ledge, looked up, trying to estimate the height. "I'll help you up if you can grab the ledge."

"Oh-ho-ho, this will be fun to watch" I heard Sparx voice again. I swear, this dragonfly gets more of a jerk by a minute.

"I'd advice you to readjust your position, young Alexandr," Ignitus spoke. I turned back and gave him a confused look, "I see you want to jump using just your hind legs. That won't be enough."

"So, what would you suggest?" I ask.

"You'll have to use your entire body strength for this jump," old dragon said. This got the attention of Spyro above me, too, "Think of your body as of tight spring. You need to coil it, and then release it. Place your paws as close to your feet as you can, then push your paws off the ground. As you do it, release the spring that is your spine, and finish the push with your legs."

"Hooo boy, this will be fun" Sparx laughed, rubbing his hands, then receiving gentle swat from Ignitus, "Hey!"

Alright, let's try this. All paws close together… yeah, like a cat! Alright, yes, this pose does put pressure in my spine. Now, there is my goal, the ledge up there…

"Hey, you don't have to jump all the way up" I heard Spyro's voice, "Just grab the ledge and I'll help you up." He paused, "Or maybe you should wait here…"

"No, I may need this skill for later!" I replied, readying myself. Three, two, one… Jump!

That was more like a hop.

"Interesting. Try again." I heard Ignitus' voice and Sparx laughter.

Alright, again. Another jump – well, that was better, but not exactly what I needed – my legs sent me face first into the wall. I heard Batter facepalming.

"Why." He said in deadpan tone. Sparx laughed even louder.

"Are you sure you don't want to wait with Ignitus?" Spyro suggested again.

"No," I said, and prepared for another try.

"Wait." I heard Ignitus say as he walked closer to me, "Alexandr… I see you're trying to force yourself to do this… But believe me, that is not what you need. Forget all you knew about yourself." Which was, basically nothing – well, at least about this form. "Let your instincts guide you. And focus not on the process, but the result."

And suddenly memory took me back to my escape from the apes. I remembered how my back sprung me forward, in unison with me limbs. And, how it wasn't me who was in control there. More like… yes, more like my body moved on its own, and I merely gave it general sense of direction.

And just like that, I suddenly stopped thinking – forcing myself to act. It was strange, to say the least. I felt my body suddenly spring upwards with so much power, I was taken by surprise and completely forgot to at least grab the ledge, and fell back down.

"Woah. Heh heh heh, nice faceplant, loon" Sparx flew right in front of my eyes.

"Go away" I wave my paw at him, snarling. Ignitus nods encouragingly, "Very well. Try again."

"Go aw-" I begin to raise my paw to take another swipe at dragonfly, only to realize he meant trying jumping again, not swatting Sparx, "-Oh. Right."

This time, I didn't even have to prepare. I just watched the ledge and jumped, grabbing the edge with my front paws, hanging on it. My hind legs scratched stone wall, pushing me up, and, with Spyro's help – he grabbed the back of my neck, similar to how cats carry their young – I managed to climb up.

Only then I noticed that my Competence Points were a bit drained.

Now that was interesting. Even more so when I saw Batter appearing out of thin air on the ledge we were standing.

"How?.." I stared at him.

"I took a shortcut" He shrugged.

"Why didn't you tell me about shortcut?" I was baffled. Batter shrugged, "You never asked, that's first. Second, you are yet too weak to use it."

"Hey, what's up? Loon's talking to his imaginary friend again?" Sparx buzzed in with smug smile on his face.

"I thought you wanted to stay with Ignitus there," I said, glaring at him. He waved off, "Nah, I think it'll be more fun watching you fumbling around."

"Yeah, right, whatever." I grumble and walk further in the tunnel. Next thing I know, Spyro shouts something and I'm getting pounced by some large bug-thing.

"Ah what the?!" I feel it trying to bite me, but shortly after I feel intense heat. Oh snap. "Spyro wait!" Wellp, too late. The bug leaves me alone and thrashes around trying to extinguish itself, and I do the same, "Ow ow ow, friendly fire, friendly fire!"

"Sorry about that," says Spyro sheepishly, finishing off the bug. Oh damn it, I didn't use my Wide Angle on it… "What was that thing?"

"A bulb spider. Watch out, there may be more ahead. They like to pretend they are shrubs. Like those ones, in the distance," Spyro pointed at tunnel exit. There indeed were two suspicious looking shrubs. And, to my dismay, more ledges. This time, I most certainly won't be able to jump that high.

Alright, bulb spiders first, jumping puzzles later.

 _Competence – Wide Angle_

 _Bulb Spider x2 – HP 50 CP 50_

 _A plant-like arachnid. Some specimen can spit flash-freezing fluid._

 _Weakness to Fire. Slight weakness to Metal._

Spyro takes the one to the right; I take the one to the left. Alright, bring it on, bulb thing!

"Purification in progress"

Batter's voice startled me. Still, I focused on the bulb spider in front of me. Waiting for the right moment, I swing my paw at it, my claws leaving burning trail that tear through its plant-like flesh. It squeals in pain and rears, trying to strike me with its frontal legs. But, blinded by pain, it missed me, striking the ground in front of me. I wait a moment longer and retaliate, sending it flying – uh, half of it flying away, other half flying into nearby wall. Just at this moment second spider flew by me, on fire. Spyro landed nearby.

"Say, why do you wait between strikes?" He asks me, flexing his wings as I finish off the burning bulb spider.

"Well, I need to-" I begin to explain but get distracted by Batter's "Adversaries purified", and let out a short sight, "Hold on a sec." I look at Batter and hiss-whisper, "Are you going to say that every time?"

"Say what?" His expression doesn't change a bit. I groan, "'Purification in progress' and 'Adversaries purified', pokerface!" He looks at me, narrowing his normal eyes, "Well, it's your duty to announce your intention to hostiles, and the end of act of purification. However…" "Whatever," I wave off. "Hey, would you look at that, Loon's talking to his imaginary friend again!" Sparx dodges my swat aimed at him and blows a raspberry. I sigh, "You're getting on my nerves, _Glowstick_ ," I growl and look at Spyro again, "Where were we? Ah, right, I remember; You were asking about my pauses during attacks." I raised one paw and looked closer at my claws. Sharp. Very sharp. "I need to channel this inner energy called 'purity' into my claws. Otherwise I won't do much damage or no damage at all."

Spyro raised eyebrow in confusion. "Did you actually try that? Attacking without channeling, I mean."

I glanced at Batter. Yeah, I did try that at him… And he just stood there with his usual expression… uh, why do I even bother describing what he's doing anyway? "No, I only tried whacking some mushroom for target practice. Got my claws jammed in its tissue." I growled and sighed, "You know, nevermind. Come on, let's get going. We shouldn't keep Ignitus waiting."

"Uh-uh. So, Loon, how'd you going to get up there?"

I look at the challenge ahead. Two ledges, one way too high for me to jump up, other just high (or is it low?) enough for me to do it. But they are too far apart for me to leap from one to another. However, they both lead to a wall…

"Maybe I could get on a lower one and jump onto that wall and bounce to the other" I say thoughtfully. Spyro looks at me, raising eyebrow, then at ledge, and then back at me, "You ever tried that before?"

"No?" I say sheepishly. Alright, but maybe I'll be able to use the competence points for this maneuver… "But that's the only way I can imagine being doable right now. I mean, I can't possibly leap that far."

"Alright, let's go then" Spyro turns and jumps up on the ledge, then glides towards the other. Sparx giggles and rubs his hands in anticipation of my failure. Ugh, that _glowstick_ is sure annoying one.

Jumping up on ledge takes me just one try this time. Felt like my body and mind were as one. Alright, now for the hard part. I somehow gotta jump on the wall and bounce to the other side.

"Are you sure you want to try this?" I hear Spyro again, "You don't have to…"

I jump. I fly through the air, on a collision course with a wall. And then suddenly I feel like time slows – and I again see my green bar, which depletes frighteningly fast. I feel my paws connect with the wall, and, with one mighty push of my hind legs I redirect myself to other side. And as soon as I do so, time flows at normal pace. There's almost nothing left of my green bar though. But that's the least of my worries now, as my chest and front legs land on the ledge, my lower body doesn't, and I'm hanging on it. Spyro immediately comes to my aid and pulls me up.

"Thanks again" I smile and nod, "Let's go"

"Well, I don't think we have to go any further" Spyro pointed at the hole in the ground, covered with roots, "Look, there is the other side of that door, and the statues Ignitus mentioned."

"Alright. How do we get inside?"

"Simple! Behold, something I came up with," Spyro grinned, performed double-jump over the roots, and then in one swift motion realigned himself and sent himself hornsfirst into the roots, smashing them to splinters and falling down the hole.

"Yeah, because if there's no other way – break stuff, go nuts, right?" Sparx shrugged, but was interrupted by Spyro's yelp.

"We're coming!" I shouted and jumped down, landing on the back of bulb spider that was clinging to Spyro's back. "Purification in progress" My claws tear into arachnid's back, making it shriek and release the purple dragon. He scrambled from the thrashing spider creature and whacked it, stunning it momentarily, and I smashed it in its forebody, finishing it off.

"Adversaries purified."

"Thanks" Spyro nodded.

"Are those the statues we're supposed to put in place?" I gestured at two dragon statues at the sides of the door. We were at small corridor, two doors, and two statues of dragons.

"Seems like that" Spyro nodded.

We pushed statues into place, and the door opened, letting Ignitus in. Just then I noticed that he was limping severely.

"Any trouble?" He said, concern in his voice, "I heard struggle..."

"Just a small insect problem" Spyro replied. I nodded. "Small insect, my tail segment" Sparx muttered.

"Alright. Let's keep going then"

We proceeded onwards through the tunnels. Strangely, we didn't encounter any resistance on our way. I felt tension building up in our small group.

"Something is wrong here" Ignitus muttered, sniffing the air, "This place was overrun by Cynder's soldiers, but there's none now…"

"Hey, maybe it's a sign that we should turn back now, ey?" Sparx sprung in front of Ignitus' face.

"Sparx, we've come this far, I ain't turning back now" Spyro replied with stern look on his face. Ignitus smiled softly, and Sparx facepalmed, "Great, now he's getting cocky."

Eventually tension popped as we entered another large cave that housed what it seemed to be the remains of Cynder's troops in the temple. Barricades all over the place and a single ramshackle hovel stood there, with a dozen of apes on guard. But something was off…

My train of thoughts was derailed by yell coming from barricades.

"Got'a proposition for ya, ol' fi'e guy!" a rather large Ape yelled, "Ya's turn y'self in, we's takin ya to Cynde', and let the lil' ones go!"

Ignitus' expression became a mix of 'really?' and 'wait what?'

"What's the catch?" I yelled back, getting the 'what?' looks from both dragons and the dragonfly.

"Ain't any catch. I'ma sick of tis' 'ere temple!" ape leader spat, "Das' dat clawed thin', killed 'aff of my men! Locked it up in'a uppa' temple. Ain't waiting fer't to come back." He drew his sword and pointed at Ignitus, "So, ol' guy, are ya comin' with us?"

Ignitus frowned. Just as me and Spyro. Hell, even Sparx frowned.

"You're joking, right?" said the dragonfly.

"Hold back, young ones" Ignitus said. His posture showed that he was ready to fight on his own. Before any of us could offer help, he spread his wings and continued, "Watch what a dragon trained in element can do!"

"He isn't going to fly in here?" said Sparx.

Ignitus didn't. He reared his head and suddenly lunged forward, spitting thick jet of white-hot fire. Apes panicked and thrashed, trying to put out, while fire dragon charged and broke the burning barricade with his horns. He then dispatched of four apes at once with one swing of his paw and mighty strike of his tail. Few remaining ones, including commander, jumped on him and tried to pin him down, but all the sudden, Ignitus' body was engulfed in flames, and second later a wave of intense heat rushed through the cavern, making me, Spyro, Sparx and even Batter cringe and seek cover.

And then it was over.

Apes were dead, their little camp turned into smoldering splinters, their bodies into burned carcasses, filling the cave with smell of burned flesh.

"Goodness, let's get out of here!" Sparx shouted in-between gags, desperately waving one his arm while covering his mouth with other. Spyro nodded, and even Batter seemed slightly unnerved. Me? I tried not to focus too hard on the burned bodies, although they did draw my attention, so I decided to focus on the door Apes were protecting… Or, rather, barricaded with everything they had.

'I wonder what scared them so much' I thought as I began prying planks of wood off the door.

"Stand back for a moment, young Alexandr" Ignitus' voice came from behind. I made a few steps away when he spat a fiery orb at the barricade. Which exploded on contact, shattering it into burning splinters, some of smaller bits ended hitting me.

"Ouch. I take you've miscalculated or something," I growled as Ignitus looked away sheepishly.

"Wai-wai-wait, guys, I don't get it!" Sparx chimed in, again visibly struggling not to throw up, "Didn't you hear that there is something inside the temple that killed half of this dude's soldiers or something? I mean," he stopped for a coughing fit, "We should go back, to the forest, with flowers and fun stuff."

"We'll see. If this door opens, we have nothing to fear." Ignitus slowly limped towards the door, but suddenly stumbled and almost fell. He sighed, his head hanging low, "Please excuse my weakness; the age and long lack of practice are taking toll on me."

"Hold on a second" Ignitus turned to me as I scratched my head, "Does it mean that if there are enemies in the temple the door won't open?" "Yes" Ignitus nodded "That's a flawed logic. Shouldn't the doors keep enemies out?" "…" Again, I thought I could hear ellipsis. "You know what, nevermind. I guess I'm thinking too hard."

* * *

"Home, sweet home" Ignitus sighed, smiling slightly. Surprisingly, we met no resistance, nothing at all. What's even more surprising, everything seemed well-cared and cleaned. Suddenly Ignitus stopped, blocking our path with his wing and lowering his stance.

We came to a large hall with basin in the center… and there was another person sitting on the edge of basin, looking away from us. Ignitus growled.

This person jumped off and turned towards us.

This man was a head smaller than Batter, wearing blue jeans and gray sweater with little heart on the center of chest. His hair was black and messy, and he was wearing… a cat mask?

I felt the tension build up. Ignitus lowered his head and slowly barred teeth as this stranger continued to look at us through his mask, tilting his head left to right from time to time. Me and Spyro slowly assumed battle stance, and it seemed that this encounter will be another purification…

And then all tension popped when this person said one word in a most unconvincing, most deadpan way.

"Miau."

I burst out laughing, chest on the floor as I lost balance. This guy was so bad he was good, that 'miau' of his didn't even sounded like he was pretending he was a cat. It didn't even sound like he was pretending he was pretending to be a cat. He sounded like he was PRETENDING he was pretending he was pretending he was a cat. Eventually my laughter got to Spyro who too started laughing, then it got to Sparx, and, eventually, even Ignitus lightened up and chuckled, seeing how this stranger wasn't hostile at all.

But who is he?

 _Competence – Wide Angel_

 _Zacharie – HP ? CP ?_

 _It's not polite using Wide Angle on everyone you meet, Alexandr._

"W-what?" I stared at this person, but quickly looked away sheepishly, "Umm… Who… Who are you?"

"I'm a cat." He replied, his voice soft and calm, "Miau."

This caused another outburst of laughter.

"No you're not." Finally said Spyro.

The 'cat' let out a soft chuckle, "Well I see my cunning disguise is no match for your sharp perception, mon ami!" He turned away and took off his cat mask and put on a different one, then turned back. This mask resembled a human face – more or less, but I couldn't understand whether the line on the mask supposed to be a frowning mouth or caricature moustache. "Buenos Dias! My name is Zacharie, and I'm a traditional merchant that every hero needs every once in a while." He chuckled again.

"What are you doing here?" Ignitus asked, slowly assuming more relaxed stance, but still watching Zacharie close. "Are you that thing that scared those apes we've met earlier?" Added Sparx.

Zacharie chuckled again. Seems like that's his verbal tic or something, "Well, I'm here because writer wanted to have a funny scene for my introduction. And, no, I didn't scare anyone away."

"Writer?" Sparx raised eyebrow in confusion.

Zacharie paused, looking at me, then at Spyro, then at… at Batter? Or am I seeing things? "But anyway!" He clapped his hands and I could feel him smiling behind the mask, "I'm not one of those NPCs who needs to be listened to for hours, so, why won't you show me the color of your money?" He paused again and scratched his head, "Oh, I think I see the problem! None of you have any place to store items. Fear not, mon amis, I have the solution to this problem so you could start buying items from me! A special gift to my newest customers, if I do say so myself" Zacharie pulled out a large backpack ('Where from?' I wanted to ask) and, shortly after, pulled out leather satchel, and gave it to me.

"What's so special about it?" I asked, opening it and looking inside finding nothing but smell of leather and a sole moth flying away.

"It can hold a lot of items, mon ami," Zacharie gave another satchel to Spyro, who reluctantly accepted it, and finally another on to Ignitus, who only raised eyebrow, but still accepted the gift. "One can say… they are bottomless. Heh heh heh. Now, you may ask, how do I find an item I need inside a bottomless container filled with stuff? Simple! There is an enchantment that allows you to pick needed items just by reaching inside and thinking about it, and, if there are any items of that type, you'll get one"

"Interesting" Sparx mumbled, "What's the catch?"

"Oh, Mon ami brillant, there is no catch!" Zachare spread his arms, "Accepting this gift isn't forcing you to buy anything from me! But if you ever got credits and/or gems to spare, I'll gladly sell you some items that could be useful in your quest."

"What are you selling, anyway?" I asked, placing the satchel on my neck. Surprisingly, the strap held it firmly in place, not letting it move an inch on its own, and yet it didn't feel restrictive at all.

"A lot of things! Tickets, cards, meat, armature, armament, membranes, battle items…"

"Membranes?.." I tilted my head slightly.

"Whoops!" I could feel Zachari grin wide under his mask, "I might have spoiled something for you all… But again, some readers can guess where this is going."

"Readers?" again, Sparx raised eyebrow, "Alright! Loon, are you two related by any chance?"

"Oh mon ami brillant, your judgment is so wrong you can't even comprehend it," the merchant shook his head and closed his backpack, hiding it… somewhere? Where does he keep it, anyway? "But the hour grows late, and I think you are growing ripe for the bed, too. If you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way to our camp on the balcony."

"'Our' camp?" Sparx said slowly as Zacharie walked through the hallway and outside. We followed him, out on the balcony – I'm not sure if I wanted to call this huge stone round construction 'balcony', it was more like a landing pad for dragons. Indeed, it was nightfall, last rays of sun disappearing on the horizon, mushroom forest below glowing in gentle purple and blue glow. There was a campfire, two tents, and yet another person sitting near the fire, watching the flames. Okay, this guy is the oddest of the bunch. He's wearing what it seemed to be an office attire, complete with a tie – but all of it was worn and tattered, as if this guy lived in the wilds for some time. More interesting though was his face. Most descriptive description I could give it is 'non-descript' or 'blank'. Seriously, his face didin't even had a nose. Two small black eyes with black eyes – ugh, this guy already has most uncanny eyes, why does he have to not have enough sleep? – a small mouth with pale lips, little to no hair and ridiculously big ears.

"Hhhh?" he wheezed, looking at Zachary, "Ohhh… Hhhh… Are those?.."

"Relax, Karter. They are friends," Zachary shrugged. "Ohhh…" Wheezed Karter – in fact, he was wheezing constantly, as if he had trouble breathing, "H-hi… Been awhile since… hhhh… Since I've seen any friendly faces." He paused and looked at our small group, "In fact… you are the first ones I meet sans Zachary who don't try to kill me on sight."

"Where are you from? I haven't seen anything like you before" Asked Ignitus as we approached the campfire. "Well… I can't tell much" Karter shrugged, "I used to live in quiet city of Bismark" Ignitus raised eyebrow at the name, sounds like he never heard of this place, "It was nice, peaceful and safe… Until one day, phantoms attacked" Now Spyro raised eyebrow, while Ignitus tilted his head slightly, "I've hid in a bunker… But I accidently locked myself in. Then… something happened. The specters were gone. The colors were gone. Everyone was gone." Okay, now that's creepy. "I thought I was safe there forever… But then everything else was gone, too. I was in this black space… there were painted flowers or something alike. And red dots here and there. So, since I had nothing better to do, I touched one of those dots… and was transported here. And after just one day here I realized something…" He wheezed a bit longer than usual, closing his eyes and rocked back and forth couple of times "In one day I met so many things that tried to kill me in one way or another… apes, some dog-men, vicious plants, giant lizards, poisonous mushrooms, deep water, food allergies…" He opened his eyes and suddenly smiled, "I realized how much I was blinded by my fear of living. Since my arrival I've been on my own for a long time… Then I met Zachary" He pointed at the merchant who was humming quiet tune to himself, "And together we wandered through this land and eventually ended up here. We've cleared out the apes that were taking residence here and cleaned up the place a bit. Not much happened since, Zacharie told we're waiting for someone to come…" he stopped and looked at Spyro and Sparx, "Are you the ones we were waiting for?"

"I guess so" Spyro finished the world 'so' with wide yawn.

"What's that light in the distance?" I asked, pointing to barely visible spot of light on a distant mountain. "That's…" Ignitus narrowed his eyes and leaned forward slightly, then continued with surprised look on his face, "That's the dragon city of Warfang! It's still standing… after all these years…" old fire dragon hanged his head low and closed his eyes with a short sigh, "Was I really that blinded by my guilt all these years?"

"Eh, I dunno" Sparx chimed in, "But it seems that Loon here may've been right, ya know. Maybe there's still hope." He then looked at Spyro and then at me, "Well, I guess since you have your hope back, we can leave at our leisure? Right? Right?.." He looked back and forth between us two. I shook my head, "Alright, then you Loon can stay!"

" _Glowstick…_ just be quiet for a moment here, aye?" I snarked, "Right now it's too late to go anywhere. So I suggest we take a short break, admire the landscape, and then be off to beds" 'or whatever dragons use to sleep' I added mentally.

So there we stood, a dragonfly, three dragons and three humans (I decided to classify Batter, Zacharie and Karter as humans, despite Karter not having a nose), watching stars slowly light up in black skies, and two moons rising above horizon, and mushrooms gently glowing below, thinking our own things.

* * *

"That's… an unexpected turn of events"

The old dragon strokes his beard, looking at small scroll, then at a purple book, then back at scroll. After that he looked at large book that he usually kept on the belt on his side, and flipped to the last page.

"This… entity definitely requires a closer attention."


	3. Chapter 3 - Training Day (And Meat!)

"Well, I think that's it for the day," Zacharie finally said.

Tiredness suddenly washed over me like a tidal wave, and I yawned wide. Same happened to Spyro as well. And Sparx followed shortly.

"Right, so what now?" I asked, stretching in a feline manner. Wow, that feels good. "We go for night rest now, obviously, but what's our next step?"

"…" Ignitus looked down on me, then on the purple dragon. "Spyro…" He says, closing his eyes and letting out a sigh, "I know it could be too much to ask, but…" He paused, opening his eyes and looking at specks of Warfang's lights on the horizon, "I need your help. WE need your help…"

"I don't know if I can, Ignitus…" Spyro shook his head, "I-I mean, I just learned what I am…"

"Yes, you can, Spyro" Ignitus crouched and leaned his neck, bringing his face closer to Spyro. Too close for the latter's comfort it seemed, "You are a purple dragon, Spyro. A very special creature…" Spyro had an… uneasy expression on his face. Okay, that's it.

I jolt in-between them and push Ignitus away from Spyro "Whoa there!" I sit on my haunches, and give an unapproving look to a very surprised fire dragon, "Alright there, big guy, I understand you're happy to finally break your loneliness by non other than legendary 'once-in-a-purple' thing, but…" I glanced at Spyro, who looked as surprised as Ignitus was, and then back at old dragon, and shrugged, spreading my paws – yeah, let's call front legs paws and hind legs legs, "But, umm… Personal space?.."

Zacharie chuckled under his mask. Karter just wheezed a bit longer than usual and shrugged, and went into the tent. Igintus stared at me as if I demanded a piece of a moon or something. Sparx just buzzed around. As for Spyro, he just stared at the floor for a while.

"I apologize," Finally, after prolonged silence Ignitus said with sad expression, "It is true that I have been alone for too long. But, nevertheless… Spyro, you've given me back hope. Now it's time to give hope to others."

I sighed, and Spyro shook his head, "I don't know, Ignitus… I want to help, but I have no idea how…"

"I can help you master your fire element... refine your combat technique." He paused for a yawn, "But that's for tomorrow. Zacharie?" The masked merchant turned his head and let out a soft 'hmm?' – "Your companion mentioned that you've cleaned the temple up a bit… How much of it actually?"

Zacharie shrugged, "Any room that was accessible. To be more precise, the one with the pool, the big hall with dragon statue in it, two rooms that I believe are bedrooms and the one that I believe to be a bathroom" He paused and adjusted his mask just a bit, "The others were either collapsed or blocked off."

Fire dragon nodded and gestured us to follow. "Let's see if any of those rooms are good for sleep…"

The 'guest bedroom' was a rather small hall with a dozen of large, cracked stone beds standing along the walls – or, rather, built into the walls niches, like some variation of a bunk bed. Guess the temple didn't have many guests visiting. Ignitus apologized for the inconvenience – apparently dragons don't sleep on the hard stone slabs, they do use hides to soften and insulate the surface, but apes apparently stole them all during their occupation. Thankfully, Zacharie 'felt generous' and gave us a roll of canvas sheet so we didn't have to sleep on cold stone.

Ignitus wished us goodnight and left. We lay on our beds. Batter stood near mine, adjusting his baseball cap.

"You ain't going to sleep?" I asked him quietly, not to provoke Sparx again. I somewhat had enough of this _glowstick_ for the day.

"No." He sad, "I don't need to sleep. And neither should you. This is strange…"

"Hey, Alexandr." I hear Spyro's voice and slightly raise my head in response, "Can you please tell your story?"

"Maybe?" I suddenly wasn't sure about it. "I…" Alright, how do I put that in a way he would understand… Let's backtrack the events of the day, shall we. I'm here in this 'temple' thing. Before that we met Ignitus in the caves below the temple. Before that I met Spyro and Sparx, and we fled something huge and flying. Before that I fled from apes. Before that I met Batter. Before that I've been given an important – holy – why do I know it's a holy mission? And before that… What?.. "I… I…" What. "That's odd. I can't remember… anything before today." In the darkness I saw Spyro tilting his head slightly, "I mean… I can remember – the memories are there – but when I'm actually trying to, there is something that feels like stonewall in the way." I tried once again, but the trail again cuts off at the mission 'assignment'. "The first thing I remember is black void with scary whispers and a voice that sent me at my mission to purify this world."

"Bro, I told you it was a bad idea bringing this loon along!" Sparx hissed, thinking I couldn't hear him, "He's gonna kill us all in our sleep!"

"Whatever, _glowstick_." I sighed and turned to the wall. Really, what the hell is this all about? Why can't I remember anything before this morning?

As if I didn't exist before this morning.

But I did exist!.. Except… not here?.. I… I went to sleep and… then the void with whispers and morning here. Oh and I looked like Batter… Why can't I remember any more…

"Don't" I heard Batter's voice, "There is no need to focus on the past."

"Look, Batter…" I sighed, turning my head to him, "I understand that it may come as natural to you, but I need their trust. They already see me as someone off, and I have no wish to further…"

"You should not waste your mind on such matters." He looked down on me, making me raise an eyebrow. He sounded… a bit angry, in fact, "Do not let emotional attachments to germinate. You can perfectly do your job on your own."

"Oh yeah, just like I did there with apes," I hissed. Batter shrugged and retorted, "As I said I've overestimated you. You will get more training tomorrow and thus will be more competent."

"I still could use potential allies…" I began but got interrupted by Sparx.

"Hey, yeah, Loon, in case you didn't notice there are people trying to sleep, so would you kindly stop talking to your imaginary friend?"

"Batter, can I purify him, please?" I saw Spyro's head rise up and stare at me. "No." Batter replied, leaning against the wall.

"Fine, be that way." I waved off and curled up on the bed. Huh. Surprisingly comfortable position. I never knew how tired I was until I just closed my eyes and just fell into sleep's warm embrace.

* * *

It's white. All is white.

I hear chimes. Uncoordinated, disturbing sounds coming from beyond my comprehension. A distorted sound of wind surrounds me. Otherworldly droning fills my head.

 _Ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding, ding._

I hear loud noise, perhaps sound of impact.

 **THUD.**

More impacts… As if someone is banging on the door.

 **THUD THUD THUD.**

 _Ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding, ding._

I hear whispers. I hear… they are… upset? Angry? Dejected?... I can't make out what they are…

"Shwhypsh shhh kshh sitsssss shkgoodspsssthatssss shyoukilledshshhh shthempsh"

More banging.

 **THUD. THUD. THUD.**

And then a desperate unintelligible scream.

"Aaud!"

 **THUD. THUD.**

Someone is calling someone. Calling someone, desperately banging on the locked door.

"Addur!.." **THUD** "ADDUR!.."

More chimes. More banging. More screams.

 _Ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding, ding._

 **THUD. THUD.**

"AAUD!"

 **THUD.**

A short howl of siren in the distance. More chimes…

 _Ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding, ding-ding, ding._

And it's white. It's all white…

* * *

My eyes snapped open. I was still on the bed in the temple. Just a dream... weird dream... That's it, it was WEIRD. But then why did I wake up in cold sweat from it? And why remembering those chimes fills me with dread? I look at Batter in hope for answer, but he stands still, like he usually does.

I sighed and stretched and yawned. It's still dark around and outside. Well then, let's get back to sleeping then.

Wait, what is this sound? Like a pained groan coming from some other room… I jump off the bed and quickly skittered into the hallway.

* * *

Ignitus walked into the Visions Room. This new white wingless dragon perplexed him greatly. Something was off about him, way off. His manner of behavior, his speech, his smell, but what made him stand out so much was his color. Those white scales of his, they somehow drew attention towards him, with that uncanny pure white color. And to add to that his weird body shape, nothing like any whelp Ignitus ever seen. He almost looked like a scaled down version of a dragoness in her adolescence, rather than a pudgy dragon whelp.

Old fire dragon sat before the Pool of visions and gazed into the green water, focusing. Maybe Ancestors will aid him in finding the answer to this puzzle.

The surface smoothed and slowly shows the guest room of the temple. Seeing Spyro sleep peacefully made Ignitus smile sadly, remembering that fateful night. However, when he moved his sight towards Alexandr, his expression shifted more into confusion.

The white dragon was sleeping peacefully, curled up on a bed in one of the niches of the room. And next to his bed stood… someone… something…

It looked like a mix of a dragon and ape, horribly deformed. Its legs were thin and long, its upper body was very massive and oversized, and its hands were huge, ending with massive paws with huge wicked claws. Its head had long muzzle, full of sharp, deformed teeth, and its eyes… Ignitus never seen anything like this, never seen eyes being so lifeless, so cold, and so artificial. Somehow it seemed that its eyes were placed halfway inside its terrifying maw.

And then it turned its head, its lifeless white eyes stare right into Ignitus'.

"I see you." It stated, its voice reverberating through fire dragon's skull. Ignitus suddenly felt paralyzed and helpless, staring right into those white, empty eyes of the creature. It shifted and walked closer to the point where his view was located. Chill ran down the fire dragon spine. The creature moved slowly but surely, emitting a sinister aura… Like an executioner coming to perform a death sentence.

"He is under my protection." it continued its statement, pointing at sleeping white dragon. Three glowing circles flew from behind its back and lined up between it and Ignitus. "I am warning you, Fire Guardian Ignitus. Either be of help to him, or stay out of our way." A glowing orb formed in the creature's paw "He has an important mission to complete. Should you stand in our way, you will be purified." The creature threw the orb in the air, "This interaction is over." And with that, it strikes the orb with its paw, sending it flying through glowing rings, and straight into Ignitus view.

Old fire dragon never expected the pool to suddenly erupt and the glowing projectile fly out of it, hitting him straight in his face. Pain washed over his body, making him scream and fall on the ground, thrashing in agony.

"Ignitus?"

"Ignitus?"

"Ignitus!"

"IGNITUS! WAKE UP!"

Fire dragon opened his eyes, slowly. It was still dark outside, but something was off.

Moment after he saw Alexandr, standing near with a worried look on his face. It was strange how his white scales made it look like he was glowing in the darkness.

"Ignitus… Are you alright?" White dragon shifted his feet in a bit awkward motion, "You were whining and mumbling something, and then you started thrashing… You had a nightmare?"

And then Ignitus realized. That weird sense of spine-chilling dread was still there, floating in the air... Surrounding – or emitting from? – the white wingless dragon in front of him.

And just like that, it suddenly disappeared.

"I apologize, young one. Did I wake you up?" old dragon asked. 'Did I really fall asleep in front of the pool of visions?' he thought.

"No," answered Alexandr, shuffling his feet a bit, "I woke up from a weird dream of my own. Just heard some noises coming from here and wanted to check if everything is alright…"

Iginitus smile and nodded, understanding.

* * *

"Ignitus was watching you" Batter informed me when I got back, "He used some unholy incantation to try and pry into your mind."

"Really?" I whispered, crawling back on my bed, "And what did you do?"

"I let him know that he's not welcome to do that," was the answer.

"You didn't hurt him, I hope?" I whispered. Somehow I had a feeling that he might be responsible for Ignitus' 'nightmare'.

"Not physically. Just inflicted _migraine_ on him."

"Well next time try doing so without need to inflict any kind of pain on people, okay?" I hissed. I was upset about that reckless act of his. I mean, I have no sound background to go with, the last thing I need now is to set people against me.

He just shrugged, so I curled up and descended into slumber once again.

* * *

"Very, very interesting, indeed."

Old dragon been reading several tomes for hours. Nothing added up. This just was not right. The history should not have been going the way it was. And yet there was this being, this _anomaly_ that defied all possibilities. A dragon in shape, but without own book. Only through rather thorough search he managed to get a few leads. One led him to the purple book he didn't want to read. It's been, what, three thousand years? Yeah, and still that betrayal hurt. Another lead took him to a small scroll which… well, it didn't have a happy ending for the hero of the story. From there he had a lead back to big purple book… And somehow it looped back to the beginning of the scroll.

Then, suddenly he saw a book that somehow managed to slip away from his attention. But that book… looked out-of-place in his library. He pulled it closer with his powers and looked at the cover. He raised eyebrow in surprise. " _Fables and legends_?" He opened the book on a random page.

 ** _"The Toad King"_**

 _Once upon a time there lived a cruel monarch. His face was so hideous that he was nicknamed The Toad King. One day, a masked man came to town. He came to the plaza where king held an audience and said, "Evil monarch, leave this lands at once or perish at the tip of my blade!" But the king replied, "I am your king, and you are my subjects! I command you bow before me!" And so the masked man struck down the king with his sharp sword. 6-0, 5-8, 3-8._

Old dragon flipped more pages, but they either were blank, or had same tale over and over again, or the text was upside down, even when he turned the book around.

Then, he felt something. Strange energy coming from the scroll towards the book. It took him some time to figure it out, but after analyzing the story in the scroll, he opened the book on a certain page.

 ** _"The God Child"_**

 _Once upon a time there lived an ordinary child who had nothing, not even parents. His world was ruined, and he was alone. In his sadness, he picked a piece of decaying flesh and made mother and father for himself. He found new friends later the same day. Together, they built a new world. Everyone was happy. There was a birthday party. But in the end, the God Child died alone and forgotten, surrounded by what he feared the most: darkness. And then there was no more darkness. 7-3, 2-2, 4-0_

"What kind of fables are those?" Old dragon closed the book, no, almost slammed it close and threw it at the wall. He'd never even thought about doing that to an item so precious, but for some reason this book… annoyed him? How did it even end up in his library?..

Wait.

How did it even end up in **_HIS_** _LIBRARY_?!

He pulled the book back. Not even a scratch or page crumbled. He waited for a moment and hesitantly opened it again.

 ** _"The Library Secret"_**

 _In a faraway land, there stood a great library. Its librarian was good and caring, but he rarely had visitors. One day, the librarian found a strange book on a floor. The read was rather boring, so he put it back where it belonged. Right as he did that, a secret passage opened before him, and the librarian discovered sinister knowledge of old days. Soon he wished he never did so, and insanity came to consume him. 1-4, 8-5_

'Eerie.' The dragon thought. Just in case, he ran through the book again, taking notes of the numbers at the end of the text and decided to try something. It took him some time, but eventually he found a shelf with a book missing. Frowning, he pressed the book in his paw to the open space on shelf.

A perfect fit.

His frown deepened. This… this was strange, to say the least. So with a soft grunt, he pushed the book in. A short chime sounded, as if marking a completion of something. And then, with a screech, a segment of a wall moved down, opening up a new passage.

This made him feel uneasy. On one side, he wanted to get to the bottom of it, especially the nature of this new entity. On the other side… Was this knowledge worth his sanity?..

* * *

Alright, is this a dream, a nightmare or a vision?

Once again everything started as white light… But no distorted chimes or wind howls or sirens this time. Instead, I begin to see… I'm in a cave. Huge cave. Alright, huge ice cave. There are apes stationed there, fires burning to keep them warm. And there is another dragon!

A rather pathetic sight he is, really. His scales, once vibrant yellow are covered in muck and dirt, several nasty-looking wounds cover his sides, and he generally looks malnourished. His wings are chained in folded position, heavy chains go to thick metal collar and cuffs on his paws and legs, and on his head, a heavy metal muzzle is locked. And he's visibly shivering from the cold.

And then I hear footsteps. I turn to see another dragon enter the cave. It only took me one look at newcomer to realize who it was.

Cynder.

He – or, rather she, at least I guessed from the body shapes – was huge. Almost twice as big as the yellow dragon, her long neck ends with pointy head with beak-like muzzle, a dozen of spikes on cheeks and back of head, and eerily glowing eyes – one yellow and other green. Her wings, even folded, manage to impress with their size, with 'thumbs' ending with wicked metal blades. Similar blade located on the end of her long, whip-like tail. Her scales are pitch-black, with exception of those around her chest and bellyplates – those are of sinister crimson color, like plates themselves. Her forms, while a bit rough were enticing, and her motions were filled with sinister, villainous grace. At the sight of her, the yellow dragon began visibly tremble in terror and tried to crawl away or curl up, but the chains didn't give him any room to maneuver.

And then she spoke to the largest of apes. I… honestly couldn't make out anything she said, but her voice was… deep and threatening. And yes, indeed Cynder was a she.

Neither could I understand what the ape she was talking to was saying.

Until…

"I sense that someone is watching us"

That startled me. Cynder turned her head and looked straight at place where my point of view was.

'Oh crap' is the only thing on my mind. She slowly moves towards me, every move of her body is graciously, magnificently sinister. I tense as she reaches out her paw and feels the place where I am… Or, rather, where I should be. Her paw just moves straight through the place that I occupy, and I'm not sure if I should be relieved or worried.

"Must be my imagination" she shrugs and immediately looses interest in me, turning towards the chained yellow dragon instead. He, in turn, lets out panicked muffled moans and desperately tries to either curl up or make like boulder and not stand out.

"Sorry, what was that?" Cynder asks mockingly, "You have to speak up!"

And then she stabbed him in his side with her tail blade, making poor dragon howl and writhe in pain.

"Don't make me bleed you dry, Guardian" she hisses and twists the blade, causing another howl and pained fit, "Zibozrar!" The ape she was talking before stands at attention as she tugs her blade out from yellow dragon's side, "Increase number of observers on far reaches. That 'Royal Guard' creature is getting more and more annoying by the day, and I need to know where he is. And keep your eyes on the prisoner!" She points at shuddering dragon and continues, "Find a way to increase extraction tempo without me having make new holes in his hide every time! He's of no use to our plan if he dies…"

And then I suddenly feel someone watching me. From behind. The presence is… neutral, and lasted just a second… But it threw me off the balance and…

* * *

And I woke up mid-fall from the bed.

"Ugh!" – thud – "Ouch."

"Someone tried to spy on your sleep again" I head Batter's voice as I felt his hands helping me up, "Not Ignitus this time, however. I do not know who the culprit is."

"Please don't do anything stupid to them," I mumbled, "I don't need repeat of this night story with Ignitus…" I make a brief pause to look at Batter… "Wait, I thought you were… taller?"

Indeed, last evening I was barely up his waist level. Now I was easily looking at his eye level.

He shrugged and turned away, "Your mind is different from this world. So is your comprehension. Your mind adapts, thus you may experience some… discrepancies every now and then." he paused and then added, "Just be thankful that you're not insane. When everyone is insane, you have to cope with the way others perceive the world as much as they can. That makes comprehending broken reality much harder."

"I honestly have no idea what you are talking about," I sighed, "So alright, what is my… comprehensible height?"

He turned back to me, and took a step back. "I'd say slightly above two meters."

I nod. So, my height is about two meters. Spyro's must be around same, seeing how he's no bigger than I.

"Hey Loon!" Oh great. That _glowstick_ again. "Finally woke up ey-ye-heey, why do you look at me like that?"

"N-nevermind. I guess I really didn't exist until yesterday." I mumble. Alright, yesterday he seemed to be a small dragonfly, you know, no bigger than a palm – well, turns out he's at least good half-meter long. He just shrugs and continues, "Well, just wanted to say that everybody already up, and Karter and that Mask-weirdo are making us breakfast."

"His name is Zacharie" Me and Batter say together. Of course, Sparx only hears me saying that, so he shrugs and leaves, leaving me and Batter in the bedroom. I take a moment to prepare for whatever lies ahead when suddenly Batter adds, "Just don't fall into stupor when you'll try to comprehend the size of those ape-creatures."

I stop dead in my tracks for a moment, and then facepaw. What is wrong with this world?!

* * *

We joined company at the landing pad balcony thing. Karter was busy roasting some meat over the fire as Ignitus watched curiously.

"…And I, uhhhhhhh, I'm not familiar with dragon cuisine. So, hhh, sorry if it tastes a bit bland." He made a brief pause to turn the pieces over, "Hhh, honestly, I only recently learned that meat can be cooked. Been eating it, hhhh, raw." Old fire dragon tilted his head as Zacharie chuckled.

Meat was, indeed, a bit bland.

After breakfast, as Ignitus promised, he began training Spyro in art of combat. We came into a large hall with a large statue of a dragon in the middle. Something about that statue made both me and Spyro feel a bit uneasy. Yes, it was just a statue, but something about it was unsettling. Maybe it's the impressive crown of horns, two huge ones on the side of head and one large in the middle, with five or so smaller ones in-between them, or maybe it's the way it looked down upon us. Can't really tell.

And then all the sudden this stone statue slides down under and disappear in the hole in the floor, which quickly covers with four-segmented hatch. Impressive, considering I haven't seen much of any slightly advanced technology around here… yet.

Spyro went straight into the center of the room, while Ignitus and I stayed near entrance. Then Ignitus started explaining battling technique to Spyro. And as he spoke a few strange, ape-like constructs of wood, canvas and hay spawned around purple dragon. Training dummies, Ignitus explained.

Watching Spyro shatter them into splinters with his claws and horns was fun. As time passed, he managed to chain his strikes into a series of attacks, finishing it with up-thrust of his horns. Whoever was unlucky to be on the receiving end would not only be wounded by sharp claws and horns, but also be thrown up in the air for a few seconds. In the air, the purple dragon was even more dangerous as he used all four of his limbs to deal blows.

But no matter how impressive it was to watch him fight in melee, it was even more spectacular sight seeing him practice his fire breath. Well, it was called 'breath', but in practice it was all about channeling the elemental energy around dragon's body, not unlike my own Purity. I should practice this sometime, I thought as Spyro incinerated dummies with flaming streams erupting from his maw. Then he used his fire breath to actually form fireballs and lob them at distant targets. Seeing all this made me realize how I was at disadvantage here. And I'm not talking just about my lack of wings – Spyro and Ignitus' fireballs actually provided them with mid-ranged area-of-effect attack, while I was stuck with just melee of claws and horns.

Time went by and eventually it was past midday when Ignitus finally decided that Spyro had enough practice.

"I heard how purple dragons are fast learners, but this went beyond my expectations," he said with a smile, "You're natural with fire." His smile was gone rather fast however, as that creepy statue risen back to watch the hall with its stone eyes. "I suggest we go and check if there is anything for us to eat."

Another portion of rather bland meat. Despite that, Spyro admitted that it somehow felt refreshing, while Ignitus promised to teach Karter some draconic cuisine. I thought that I'd try and ask old fire dragon to train me a bit as well shortly after we're done with our dinner.

* * *

After the dinner, Ignitus sat before the basin where we met Zacharie and gazed into the odd, greenish water. Spyro was chatting with Zacharie and Karter out on the balcony, taking his time to let his body rest after intensive training he received. I sat on the other side of the basin and looked back and forth at Ignitus and the surface of water. Old dragon seemed to be in some sort of trance. "This is how he tried to spy on you last night," Batter informed me with his usual stoic tone.

Suddenly ripples went on the water and broke Ignitus from his trance, startling him. The reason floated nearby.

"So what's with the pool, old guy?" Sparx asked in most annoying manner.

Ignitus frowned and answered with slight irritation in his voice, "If you must know, Sparx, this is the Pool of Visions. Some dragons can see images. Events of the past, the present and the future, thoughts and dreams of others. I am one such dragon."

"Yeah? Alright, what am I thinking now?" Sparx flew up close to Ignitus' face and hovered there, then dashed to the side, "What am I thinking now?" Ugh, I guess I know where this is going. Sparx dashed to the other side, "Now?" and then back to front, "Now? Now? Nownownownow? Now-ack!" He flew right into the water as I flicked him. Not that I could do much damage to him, I mean, he's a dragonfly that's around half-meter long. "Bleh! This vision water taste horrible!" He flew back up and started spitting; I noticed Spyro and two humans approach us. Ignitus chuckled and shook his head, "I'm afraid it's not that easy, Sparx. It takes time and concentration to see things. So excuse me if I'm not interested in seeing your thoughs," he paused and his expression changed to a somewhat concerned, "What I do see, however, is one of my companions, the Storm Guardian Volteer. He's currently being held prisoner in Dante's Freezer." He turned to Spyro, "Spyro… I know I'm asking a lot of you… But I want you to get there and rescue my brother." He turned to Sparx and as if he foresaw the question stated, "No, we are not brothers in the meaning of family, but rather in our duty. We, elemental Guardinas were once an order of scholars, meant to keep peace and order... Until… Until…" His head hung low and he sighed, "Well, what happened has happened. Too late to cry over a broken egg" He cringed. Yeah, I can imagine that metaphor hurt.

"You want to send him there all alone?" I gave Ignitus unapproving look, "I mean, prophecies, purple dragon and the like, but, you know, he's just a… kid?.." I looked at myself. …Yeah I kinda forgot for a moment that I'm also… kid-sized for now.

"I'm afraid we have no choice" Old dragon sighed, "I do not know why Cynder keeps him alive, but…"

"You don't want to be captured because you have no idea what'll happen then" Figures. I scratch behind my left horn with thoughtful expression, "Any ideas why she might want to have you guys alive?"

"I… have suspicions. But I need more information before I can make any decisions." Fire dragon looked at Spyro, "Child… I know this is much to ask, but… we need your help, Spyro. Please help us."

"I'm not sure if I can, Ignitus… But I will try to" Spyro shook his head, "But how am I going to get there?"

"I'm glad you asked" Ignitus' expression changed into a playful grin, with this sudden change he almost beamed with happiness. "Why are you smiling, I don't like this" asked Sparx cautiously, nah, scratch that, he sounded outright _panicking_.

"Well…" Iginitus rolled his eyes…

* * *

Well, that was something. Yeah. How do I put it… Spyro just flew away. With those little wings of his. That was physically impossible! Batter stood beside me and was rubbing his chin. Although his expression didn't change much, I knew he was at least slightly amused by the sight. Karter was silent, just wheezing every now and then, and Zacharie kept chuckling quietly as five of us watched purple speck disappear in the clouds.

"May the Ancestors look after you" Ignitus said, looking up, "May they look after us all."

Gray clouds slowly crept over the sky, filling it with thick veil. Soft wind brought the wet smell. Perhaps it will be raining soon. Well, this doesn't matter; I need to ask Ignitus to train me.

* * *

"Ah, Alexandr, it's good that you showed up" Ignitus takes the initiative as I enter the room with the Pool of Visions, "I actually wanted to talk to you."

I nod and sit by the basin, as Ignitus lay down on the floor, propping his chin with his paw.

"I… Want to know a bit more about you" Old dragon said, watching me right at my eye level, "You're… Unusual."

"Pff. Tell me more" I roll my eyes and look at Batter. He shrugs. I sigh, "Look, I can't tell you much. I have no memories of my past before yesterday morning." Ignitus tilts his head, narrowing one eye, "I woke up at some clearing in the swamp. Then I wandered around aimlessly until I encountered some apes. They gave me chase and I bumped into Spyro and he saved me." I rubbed the bridge of my nose, "And then we met you."

"Your scales are of unusual color" Ignitus noted. I snort, "Yeah, thanks, I noticed. Especially that odd tint that makes me look like I have an outline."

"The dragon scales' color usually relates to the element dragon possesses," He continued, "All dragons usually have one element… The purple dragons can master more than one element. But I never saw someone like you. What is your element, Alexandr? The closest I can guess is Ice."

"No. I don't have Ice element" I look at Ignitus and into the waters of the pool, then back at Ignitus, "I do however possess some energy called 'the purity'. I can channel it into my claws and horns to amplify my attacks."

"Never heard of it" Ignitus said honestly. He nodded in acknowledgement. I made a pause and then decided to go straight to the point, "Ignitus, look… I need your help. I've been assigned to a… holy mission to purify this world from corruption. But, well, I'm not really good at combat. I… Well, I want you to give me combat training…"

He shook his head, "Alexandr, look, I'm sorry, but… I can't do that" He stood up, "You see, I think I understand what happened to you" He pauses and sighs, "Sorry to be so blunt but… I suspect you suffered a concussion."

"What." I said shocked. A concussion? "A concussion? Really? And what about my element, or rather lack of thereof, huh?"

"I suspect it's another trick of the apes. They were experimenting with dragon crystals… Maybe they found a way to disrupt elements in our bodies."

"Ignitus, I'm serious!" I stand up and look straight into his eyes.

"I'm serious too," He replied calmly, "I've already failed enough young lives in my life. I can't let you venture wherever your broken mind wants to take you…"

"Yet you were confident when you sent Spyro away!" I snarled at him, "What, being a purple dragon means he has some sort of invulnerability? Besides, I WILL go wandering around, and if I have no idea how to fight, I WILL end up getting killed…"

"No. You are staying in the temple" Fire dragon ignored my argument about Spyro it seems, "Under my protection."

"What, you're going to watch me 24/7?" I asked sarcastically, "Look, Ignitus, you may not always be around to come to my aid…"

"You're not leaving the temple, and that's it." He said with sudden steel in his voice. I gazed at Batter for a moment who was watching him with all four eyes squint. I hissed at him, and he shifted his look at me, then back at Ignitus.

"Is that your final say?" I growl.

"The courtyard" Batter said suddenly and took off without a warning. What? What does he mean by that? Am I to follow? Alright, let's hope I ain't gonna screw his plan up or something, "Alright then, let me show you an example how your plan can and will go wrong!" I jump up and follow Batter before I can loose him behind the corner.

* * *

The gray clouds filled the skies completely. Small drops of rain were falling all over the courtyard. It was quite a large space, but as of now it was mostly covered by debris of the buildings that once made up the temple. I ran out and saw Batter standing on a patch of grass, untouched by debris, gesturing me to come closer. As I approached, Batter suddenly tapped the ground of the temple courtyard with his bat three times.

"Show yourself, you restless souls!" he yelled, "For I am the voice of forgiveness that shall end your calamitous forms!"

 _Woosh!_

A _ghost_ popped right in front of me. It looked like stereotypical cartoonish ghost children usually draw – you know, the one with a body shaped like an upside-down raindrop. The only curious thing about it was its expression. It looked like it had absolutely no idea what it was doing here. It gave me a confused look.

"Uh, hi?" I asked, having no idea on what is going on. Batter rolled his normal eyes and sighed.

 _Woosh! Woosh! Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!_

I quickly go surrounded by those confused-looking ghosts. There was, like, a dozen of them staring at me. I looked back and saw Ignitus entering the courtyard, coming to a rapid stop when he saw me and ghosts, his expression quickly became similar to that of ghosts'.

"By the ancestors?.." It seemed like even he wasn't sure what was going on.

Batter placed his bat back on his shoulder.

"Now do your job," he said to me.

And then ghosts attacked me, striking me one by one. It didn't hurt much, but made me jump in surprise.

"BATTER WHAT THE HELL?!" I yelled.

"Purification in progress" was his reply.

Yeah, purification in progress alright. I'll purify YOU for this surprise, you emotionless jerk, I thought as I used my identification competence on the ghosts.

 _Competence – Wide Angle_

 _Common ghost x18 – HP 10/CP 0_

 _A feeble ectoplasmic incarnation._

Yeah, nice. Thanks a lot, Batter. I'm taking a swipe at nearby phantom as soon as my purity charges, and it deflates like a balloon, ectoplasm leaking from slashes and dissolving in the air before even hitting the ground. The rest of the ghosts fly back and then charge at me. Half of them missed, the other half rapidly devoured a quarter of my vitality. I see Ignitus with a corner of my eye taking a swipe at phantom near him, only to see his claws pass through it with no effect. His expression was priceless. The expression of the ghost was just as priceless as well, it looked around, like 'What just happened?' Another swipe, another ghost vanquished. Great, just sixteen more left.

Their next attack is less damaging than previous one, probably because most of them missed, few strikes were absorbed by my scales and just one or two hit the sensitive spots. When it was my time to strike, the ghost I chose as target managed to easily slip away, wasting my purity charge. I growl in frustration and next time ghosts fly at me I clumsily roll to the side. Should've just stepped to the side, honestly, because rolling actually made me fall off me feet, and I wasted precious seconds to get back up. Just in time to dodge another barrage of attacks. Counterattacking, I strike at nearby ghost, cutting it in half. Another barrage, this time however ghosts do not concentrate on one point where I stood, but rather on the area around it. Even though I did my best dodging their attacks, few managed to hit me. Half of my lifeforce already was gone. Ignitus changes tactics and fires jet of fire at nearby ghosts. That works to my surprise as ghost's form simply evaporates. However that actually attracted the ghosts' attention towards him, and the next barrage of attacks went at him. With his size and age, there was no way he could dodge, he gasped in pain as ghosts rammed him one by one. But that bought me some time to deal with two more little buggers. And they've switched back to me, bombarding me with their attacks. I feel the pain, my body aches, the bar of my vitality shrunk to a quarter. Ignitus fires another jet of flames, torching multiple ghosts at once as I rip another one. Looking around, only three more left. Two charge at me, one at Ignitus. I manage to take both hits, and, well, there's just a sliver of health left on my bar. Damn it, think fast Alexandr! You're way too close to dying now, do something! Another ghost goes down under the strike of my claws… and the final two find their demise in flames of Ignitus.

"Adversaries purified"

Whatever. I can barely stand on me legs, my whole body hurts and my vision wants to get blurry. Huh? I hear something… whispering?

 _300 credits received._

 _100 experience point received._

 _You advanced to level 2._

 _Competence unlocked: **Purity** **channeling** – Passive – all physical attacks channel weak charge of Purity. Each successfully landed hit slightly boosts Purity charge rate._

Alright, that is… weird. At least my vitality bar slightly increased.

"By the Ancestors, what in the world was THIS?" Ignitus limps towards me, "Alexandr! You're hurt? How badly?"

"I'm about to pass out" I say, "But something holds me from doing so… You have any _luck tickets_ handy?" He looks at me with confused expression, "Something to heal me quick"

"Oh. I'll go get you some red crystals" Ignitus limps away as quick as he can. I lean against ruined pillar and breathe heavily.

"Dammit Batter! What the hell were you thinking?" I turn to my mentor.

He just points up at somewhere above entrance to the temple. I turn and see…

I don't know what I see. It's like a bunch of glowing orange lines floating above entrance… Now they float down and towards me!

"Guuuh, what the hell are you?!" I growl, totally not feeling like fighting this… thing.

"This was impressive display from someone pathetic looking like you!" the lines said to me. Great. This thing talks. Its voice sounded hard and slightly echoed, and a little bit mechanized, like a man speaking through a drive-through speaker or audio filter.

"You didn't answer my question" I said trying to maintain tough look.

"Don't pretend you can take on me, whelp! I sense that you're beaten and exhausted." The lines moved and shifted, their glow intensified and dimmed as it spoke, "How about you tell me your name first, creature of no physical order!"

"I am Alexandr. I am on a holy mission to purge the world from corruption."

The lines regrouped once again, "I am Gamma, the Draconic Add-On. And I tell you this, whelp, you have no hope of fulfilling your mission on your own if you continue to fight like that."

"That's why I needed that fight" I said, "Perhaps now Ignitus will agree to train me…" Wait, didn't Batter have some 'add-ons' when I learned my Wide Angle competence?

"Hm. Whelp, I don't know why, but I get a feeling that I saw you before… sometime, somewhere." Gamma floated closer to me, his tone suddenly softens, like he just recognized an old friend, "And, seeing how you are a creature of no physical order… I want to offer you my assistance on your quest."

"Really? You want to join me? What can you do?" I felt a wave of warmth washing over me, erasing the pain from injuries. It seems that I just got an ally!

"Well, I can attack your adversaries at close range, acting as an independent weapon. I also can channel purity into a devastating single-target ranged attack or less powerful range attack that hurts everyone in an area" Yes, yes! That's just what I needed! "Also, I can channel purity into a flash that will cause severe burns to the adversaries. They won't be damaged much, but definitely will be forced to slow down from pain."

I smile wide and nod, "I'll gladly have you on my team, Gamma." I reached my paw out and touched it.

"Okay, boss!" Gamma blinked and… It felt like its lines were dragged alongside my paw, up the arm, over to shoulder… I felt a bit strange, and looked at my back. Wow. One of the thicker lines had a T-shaped base that currently resides above my wing-stump. Curious I tried to flare my 'wing'… and the Add-on unfolded in all its glory. it indeed resembled somewhat abstract wing, with three triangle-shapes for claws and two 'fingers' which imitated the fingers on dragon's wings – the only thing it lacked was a membrane between those two fingers and body.

"Looking good, Gamma!" I smiled. Then I noted another vitality bar appear under mine.

"Yeah-yeah, let's go get you patched up, boss" Gamma said to me.

I slowly go back to the entrance and begin to climb up the stairs… The next happens almost at once.

"Boss, look out!" Gamma's voice reaches my ears.

"Purification…" That's Batter's voice.

 _You've been caught off guard!_

 _The enemy manages to strike first!_

Sharp pain goes through my spine as I watch in shock and horror my lifebar being completely empty now. I see a ghostly shape dashing away from my eyesight.

"Adversaries fled" Batter's voice comes to me as if through water. The world around me blurs and stretches outward… Everything is getting… so... distant… So far away…

"Boss? Boss! Boss!" I hear Gamma's voice, more and more echoed and incomprehensible by a second. Pain is slowly going away, as well as all other senses…

Well, that's it.

I'm dead.

* * *

Ignitus was going back into the courtyard when he saw Alexandr entering the temple corridors. To things made fire guardian feel uneasy. First, his head was slumped, eyes closed. Yet he was walking, but the motions were… unnatural. It was as if he was a giant puppet or something. But that wasn't all – on his back, from the stump where his left wing should be, was… something made of glowing orange lines.

"Alexandr?" Ignitus tilted his head and cocked his neck, "What are you doing? Are you alright? And what's that thing?"

"He is dead, that's what he's doing!" Said 'thing' on his back bluntly, "Boss here got backstabbed by a bloody phantom!"

"What." Ignitus stared at the set of lines that apparently just TALKED to him, 'What do you mean 'dead'?"

"I mean he's dead! Dead! Gone! Ceased to live! Lost vitals!" the lines replied, "Are you going to ask stupid questions or maybe help me? His body is a pain in the tail to move!"

Ignitus stared at Alexandr's body, then dashed to the little white dragon, grabbed him and carried him to the Visions Room. His body was cold. Placing the dragon on the floor, Ignitus made a quick check, but found neither pulse nor breathing. Feeling how panic slowly began to boil inside, he reached down and pressed his ear to Alexandr's heart.

Silence.

"No. No-no-no, no-no-no-no-no. Ancestors, no" He mumbled, reaching for the satchel and pulling out a handful of red crystals, setting them by Alexandr's side.

No reaction.

"Oh dear. Now this is a serious situation" Ignitus snapped towards the voice, and saw Zacharie leaning against the wall, "Such a pity he kicked the bucket so early in the story."

Ignitus started growling, making the masked man rise hands defensively, "Okay-okay, I get it, you're not in a mood for jokes right now. Sorry," he made a pause, "Well, thankfully, I got just what this situation calls for. I can sell you an item for 120 credits that will bring our colorless friend back into the land of the living. Or I can take gems, too."

Ignitus wanted to say that he has no idea what credits are and whether there are any gems left in the temple, when those weird glowing lines on Alexandr's back reached into the white dragon's satchel and pulled out a handful of blueish paper slips, "Is this what you want, Merchant?" Zacharie nodded, and took them, counted them, and, satisfied, pulled a larger slip of paper from his pocket and gave it to the line creature.

"This better work, merchant." It said as Zacharie shrugged, "My merchandize always works"

Ignitus looked curiously as the line creature placed the piece of paper on Alexandr's forehead. On this 'card' was an image of… some creature in jester hat, with unnaturally pointy chin and grin so wide it seemed truly scary. So far, nothing happened, until…

* * *

I am weightless. Fickle. Darkness all around me. Warm, soft darkness.

It's kind of… pleasant.

Then I feel like a gentle hand slowly stroke my chin, go along the jawline to my cheek.

"Stay…" I hear a woman's wailing voice.

The stroke repeats.

"In…" I hear that voice again.

The stroke repeats.

"Your…"

The stroke repeats on my other cheek.

"Coma…"

And once again invisible hand strokes my cheek.

"Stay in your coma…" I hear the unseen woman wail. Another gentle stroke follows.

"Stay in your coma…" Another invisible hand goes over my shoulder.

"Stay in your coma…" Another invisible hand joins in, going over my neck and down to my chest. More voices join the wail, some belonging to more unseen women, others sound like male ones… Almost like a choir…

"Stay in your coma…" More and more hands stroke me. I feel so relaxed now. I feel like…

"Stay in your coma…"

Like…

"Stay in your coma…"

…Staying…

"Stay in your coma…"

…Forever…

"Stay in your coma…"

…Forever…

"Stay in your coma…"

…f…o…r…e…v…e…r…

"Stay in your coma…"

 _"Stay in your coma…"_

 ** _"Stay in your coma…"_**

And then I'm forcefully ripped out from this bliss into a cold, white light.

* * *

My eyes snap open, my body convulses and shoots me up an all fours. I'm dazed and confused, my head's spinning, my body's aching, and my stomach… Oh... Oough…

I almost collapse on my chest and throw up on the stony floor. And then I nearly fall into the pile of my vomit, but thankfully something grabs the back of my neck and pulls me aside. I hear some odd chime from below and feel pleasing warmth spread up my arms, up the shoulder and my side. That gives me some strength and I stumble a bit but don't fall. Throat burns… Water… I need water…

* * *

Ignitus watched the scene with utter disbelief on his face. Not only that piece of paper disintegrated shortly after it been put on white dragon head, it actually brought him back to life. Fire dragon quickly dragged him a bit away from the pile of vomit, and stared daggers at Zacharie.

"What." said person looked at Ignitus with innocent eyes and shrugged. Then old dragon heard odd lapping sounds from the side where he left Alexandr. Turning towards him he felt his jaw drop as white dragon was currently busy gulping down water from the pool of visions, downing bitter liquid like it was dragonfruit or something.

"Alright, that's enough-hhh, big guy" Ignitus turned just in time to see Karter running towards Alexandr, pulling him away from the pool, "Come, let's-hhhh, let's get you some fresh-hhhh air."

As this strange creature pulled shaking dragon to the balcony, he turned one last time towards Ignitus and wheezed, "I'll clean this up shortly, hhhh... C-could you get hhh-him some water?"

Old dragon let out a slightly frustrated growl. He needed answers.

So as Alexandr and Karter disappeared, Ignitus suddenly grabbed Zacharie and pulled him into the corridor that led to the escape tunnels.

"Alright, I don't know who or what you are," He said, growling at the merchant who stood before him, shaking off dust from his sweater arm, "But I want to know at least one thing." He made a pause then said a bit louder and with slight anger, "What, in the ancestors' name I just witnessed?!"

The merchant chuckled and patted old dragon's paw, "Mon ami, calm down. Things like this happen every now and then. Characters die…"

"He was dead, merchant," Ignitus almost hissed, "Dead! And those… ghosts in the courtyard? And that glowing thing on his back? And you give it some slip of paper and suddenly he's not dead anymore!" It seemed that Ignitus could burn a hole in a merchant with his stare, "What is all this? What is going on?"

Zacharie suddenly stared back at the dragon, and guardian felt uneasy all the sudden. "Let's just say that you will not like any explanation I can offer you" He said, the softness of his voice disappears, replaced by cold steel "Even more, it will shatter your sanity, and, perhaps, reality." He shook his head, "Just trust me… With _his_ appearance the story of this realm gets… _complicated_."

Ignitus sighed, "How bad is it?"

Zacharie didn't answer, but fire guardian could tell he cringed under his mask.

"Beware the fog." was all he said, before chuckling and returning to his old cheery self. "Heheheh… Don't take it so serious, mon ami. Better get Alexandr some water. First resurrection is always very shocking. As for 'glowing thing' as you called it… Ask Alexandr about it."

* * *

I was still trying to catch my breath after this experience. Gamma snuggled close to my left side and somehow I felt that those lines actually were warm. To the right I felt Karter sit and gently rub the scales on my shoulder. Even despite the rain, I feel comfortable… But as I go back in my memory, I begin to shiver.

I died.

I DIED.

And then I was brought back to life. So what am I, a zombie now? Or is this some sort of resurrection spell?

"Boss, calm down. If you continue to get agitated, you might throw up again."

"A-al-right" I respond, my voice shaking. My lifebar is filled to a third, yet that doesn't bring any peace of mind yet.

I hear steps coming from the temple. Turning there, I see Ignitus walking towards us on three legs, holding a barrel in fourth.

"Water" he said, putting it net to me and popping off the lid. I slowly – pain in the whole body decided to return shortly before Ignitus' arrival – shift to it and just stuff my face inside, lapping cool refreshing liquid without any care of how I look during this.

I keep drinking until I hear some noise coming from above. What? I don't know, just some strange drumming-like noise. I pull my head out of the barrel – my horns do their worst to get stuck, guh – and look around for the source of the noise… Until I look up and realize that Igintus actually extended his wing and covered me and Karter from the rain. I just gestured that I'd prefer to move back into the temple.

"How do you feel?" Ignitus asked quietly. I shook my head – uh, bad idea, world around instantly blurred and I swerved off course and almost fell. Thankfully, Karter caught me before I could fall and straighten me up. "Does this answer your question?" I reply, my voice feels… alien. Too hoarse, cracking… Guh. "Beats being dead, though." I shudder remembering how it felt… warm… comfortable… enticing… void. No thanks.

We walk to the guest bedroom. I climb on the bed I claimed yesterday night and finally give in and let my body just sprawl on the canvas-covered surface. Ahhh. Feels good.

Karter left us, and finally Ignitus sighed and said, "Alexandr… What happened?"

"Ghosts on the temple grounds" I replied, "And I suspect many more in the world. And I barely overpowered those. Now you wee why I need your training?"

"I see," he replied, "But first I want you to explain one thing… What is this?" He pointed at Gamma. I explained. Ignitus shook his head, "This is really unusual. Well, Alexandr, I want you to take some time and rest for the remaining of today. And tomorrow…" he paused, "We will begin your training."

* * *

 _Competence – Wide Angle_

 _Small training dummy – HP 15/CP 0_

 _Medium training dummy – HP 50/CP 0_

 _Large training dummy – HP 100/CP 0_

 _An artificial, animated construct for dragons to train their young in art of combat and elemental mastery._

Slash, slash, and slash, crash. Slash, slash, and slash, crash. Slash, slash, and slash, crash. And once again, slash, slash, and slash, crash. I'm going through exact same motions for third hour already, getting better and better at this. Motions become more automatic, reflexive. Faster.

I practice under Ignitus' observation. First, he taught me the basic fighting technique, the one all whelps learn. When I seemed to get a good grasp on these basic attacks with claws and horns, he decided – somewhat hesitantly – to actually switch to fire dragons' melee technique. Now that was a surprise for me, since I lacked the element needed, but as I shortly learned, the lack of the element was compensated by my purity-amplified melee strength. In melee, fire dragons relied on two strategies: steady stream of claws-and-horns attacks with flame breath thrown in every now and then for good measure, or brutal and relentless charges and tackles with 'comet dash' technique. The latter was unavailable to me, because it actually required having certain level of training in fire element.

So we focused on the former. Right now I was in the middle of the training hall, spinning around like a spin top, slashing dummies with my claws, horns and tail blade. Indeed, my every attack now left a faint white trail when I made strikes, and with each connected hit the purity bar went up a bit. Gamma, too, got his share of workout from this, covering my flanks and attacking dummies from different angles with his three claw-like shapes.

During this, I discovered new _competences_ in myself. First time it happened, I attacked larger dummy, but, somehow, instead of just channeling purity to my claws, I somehow discharged it in front of me, and, before I knew it, it pulled me forward, right through the dummy. When I turned back I was that the construct was visibly reeling, disoriented, and, most importantly, surrounded by the cloud of small metallic shrapnel – which quickly collapsed on the dummy and shattered it into splinters.

 _Competence unlocked: **Courageous dash** \- CP cost 5 – An audacious attack that stuns enemy and deals damage of element Metal_

With Ignitus' guidance I quickly managed to master it – even though I was confused about the 'metal' element the voice whispered to me when I had it fixed in memory. Next one came on its own, somehow. Instead of channeling purity energy to my claws or projecting it somewhere to pull me in dash attack, I accidently discharged it into myself. To my surprise, it actually restored some of my vital energy.

 _Competence unlocked: **Mend the Scales** – CP cost 5 – Heals some damage_

Final competence was discovered with a small… accident. Somehow, this time I used the purity charge to create an aura of sorts around me that amplified my and Gamma's attack strength and the will to fight… And accidently got Ignitus into its radius.

Some moment later Ignitus stood in the center of the hall with surprised look on his face, amidst shattered and smoldering remains of training dummies. Me? I was sitting at the entrance, and was honestly shocked at how such big and old dragon could move with such great speed and swiftness.

 _Competence unlocked: **Battle** **Rally** – CP cost 15 – Boosts physical damage and morale of all nearby allies_

And after that we had a look on Gamma's _competences_. He managed to impress both me and Ignitus. His _Particle Ray_ competence dealt heavy damage to a single target at range, strong enough to one-shot medium dummy. _Planar Blast_ dealt less damage, but covered a small area around the impact point, damaging everyone around it. Finally, _Flash of Pain_ dealt small amount of damage to all enemies around us, but to compensate this slowed all enemy motions – including attacks, which, in turn, made them deal less damage.

As Batter explained to me later, every purifier gets unique set of competences depending on his nature. He suggested that from my skill set, I fall into 'the Leader' category, as I have competences to improve performance of my team. Batter classified himself as 'the Savior', although he didn't tell me much about his skillset.

* * *

We spent two more days training me up. Somehow after defeating all the dummies I got more credits. Using them I bought some luck tickets, some silver flesh and the revival cards, _jokers_ from Zacharie. He also offered me some 'armature' and 'armament', but I didn't have that much money yet.

And it could be just another training day, but I had misfortune to go near the Pool of Visions and gaze into it. To my shock and horror, I saw Spyro, lying in the snow, shivering, with Sparx hovering around him with concerned look on his face.

"Ignitus!" I run at the balcony, where old dragon should be… but he's not there. Instead there is Karter and Zacharie, "Where's Ignitus? Spyro's hurt!"

"Hhhh, calm down," Karter said, "He went to check some suspicious motion in the forests below. Hhhh… He'll be back shortly…" the man paused, then suddenly jolted, "Oh, by the way, I keep forgetting" He reached into his pocket and gave me a rather large slip of… plastic? It was definitely bigger than that Joker item, "One of the apes in the temple had this. Zacharie asked me to give it to you…"

 ** _Glacias card_** _acquired!_

 _Allows access to Dante's Freezer._

"Yeah, thanks. How do I use it? And what for?" I ask, annoyed.

"Ah, mon ami, look here. See this mysterious object floating in the air?" Zacharie pointed at strange hovering red cube, about half-meter in diagonal, with small white square in the middle of each side, "Touch it. Come on, don't be afraid."

I look at Zacharie with suspicion and hesitantly touch the red box…

* * *

Alexandr disappeared in the series of white rings rising from the ground below him. Batter reached out and touched the box, too. Just as his body dissipated into portal dust, he swore he heard Zachary saying without the usual cheerfulness in his voice, "Take care of him, friend."

* * *

"WHERE THE HELL AM I?!" I look around the black void, yelling. Well, it's not really void, there are some bush and tree-like formations with bright red flowers on them…

"Welcome to the Nothingness" I hear Batter's voice behind me, "This is a lieu where you can travel between different spots of the world at the speed of light." He pointed at one of the 'bushes', "These here are access points. Touch them to enter zone"

I do.

 _Aeros card required to access the Tall Plains._

I touch another one.

 _"Enter **Dragon** **Temple**?"_

"Yes?" I say and – _Woosh!_ – I stand at the balcony, in front of Zacharie and Karter and that red cube. Alright, I think I figured out how this thing works, so I touch the cube again and exit to Nothingness. There, I touch another 'flower'.

 _"Enter **Dante's Freezer**?"_

"Yes"

 _Woosh!_

I stand in the snow, wind throws heavy snowflakes in my face, and it's getting dark. I look around, and see in the distance faint glowing yellow light and something… purple under snow…

Spyro and Sparx!

I hop towards them through the snowstorm…

* * *

"It has begun, my sister."

"What shall we do, dear brother?"

"What we did before, dear sister. Show them the wrath of our tools of vengeance and the might our Royal guard."

* * *

 **Alexandr the Pure, The Leader**

 _Competences:_

 ** _Wide Angle_** _– CP cost 2 – reveals some enemy characteristics_

 _ **Purity** **channeling** – Passive – all physical attacks channel weak charge of Purity. Each successfully landed hit slightly boosts Purity charge rate_

 ** _Mend the Scales_** _– CP cost 5 – Heals some damage_

 ** _Courageous dash_** _\- CP cost 5 – An audacious attack that stuns enemy and deals damage of element Metal_

 ** _Battle_** ** _Rally_** _– CP cost 15 – Boosts physical damage and morale of all nearby allies  
_

* * *

 **Gamma, The Brute**

 _Competences:_

 ** _Particle Ray_** _– CP cost 5 – Special attack of low importance_

 ** _Planar Blast_** _– CP cost 15 – Special attack of small area of low importance_

 ** _Flash of Pain_** _– CP cost 5 – Decreases adversary speed slightly_

* * *

 **Inventory**

 ** _Luck ticket_** _x10 – Restores some HP_

 ** _Joker_** _x2 – Revives a person_

 ** _Silver flesh_** _x5 – Restores some CP_


	4. Chapter 4 - Ice Maze Tango

This was wrong. This was so wrong. He shouldn't be here. Every fiber of his old body told him so. It was like he was outstepping his authority. But at the same time, he was curious. After all, it was his library… and he was its Chronicler. And despite everything he was curious about this hidden section. So he proceeded on, with two elemental constructs following him to light the hallway.

But why was it hidden away? And what was that part about sanity? Well, honestly, he mused to himself, this hallway is unnerving. From time to time he swore he could hear someone trailing him, he could hear something like footsteps… Except those were not coming from behind him, but strangely from the right side of his head. Yes, that's right, from the right side of his head - no matter how many times he turned around, those footsteps constantly came louder in his right ear. And from time to time those footsteps got faster, as if a person who was responsible started running. And the further he went, the more and more clear he heard some odd periodic buzzing overhead, and the darker the hallway became. He was glad he took those constructs with him.

Finally, he reached another door. But it was… odd. Made of heavy metal, and covered in dust and rust, and seems like it hasn't been used for a while. And of course, it didn't budge even a bit.

The Chronicler looked at the door before him. Whatever was behind… Perhaps was the answer to the questions he had regarding that odd book. And maybe even more. Or maybe there was nothing behind. But how does it open, if it opens at all?

A closer look at the door revealed eight round rotating plaques with numbers. Numbers…

"Aha!" the old dragon couldn't help but smile, pulling out the scroll with notes he took when examining ' _Fables and legends'_. 6-0, 5-8, 3-8, 7-3, 2-2, 4-0, 1-4, 8-5.

The plaques turned with a clicking sound, as the Chronicler entered what he thought to be a code. 4-2-8-0-8-0-3-5. A familiar chime played, and the door slowly opened, sliding sideways, revealing a small antechamber with another door on the other end, with a single parchment attached to the door.

The reading on the parchment said,

"Chief Archivist note: YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE. Addendum: NOT YET ANYWAY."

* * *

Creak-creak-creak-creak.

My every jump makes snow creak, and leaves a sizeable dent in it. Good thing I decided to move by jumping instead of plowing through.

"Spyro! Sparx!" I called out to them, hoping they will hear me through the wind.

"Loon?!" Sparx turned towards me, eyes bigger than his head, again, "H-how did you get here-Nevermind that, dude, Spyro's hurt!"

"What happened?" I move closer and begin to dig half-buried dragon from the snow. Well, I can see that he crash-landed here, judging by a now almost unnoticeable plow line in the snow… As Sparx tells their story, I nod, painting a clearer picture. They were flying for around three days, with stops now and then to rest, but eventually, they got into a blizzard, and Spyro got hit by a few shots from some apes' cannon. One of shots hit his wing and he crashed. Ever since he was unable to move, at all, and had severe pain in his chest…

Broken or cracked ribs. I guess. Oh come on, I'm not a medic, I'm a… uh, I'm a purifier?

"So, Loon, you dug him up, now what are you going to do?"

Hell if I know! I look at Batter… who is standing ON the snow, as if he weights nothing.

"Get back to their party, for starters," he says.

Right. Whatever that means?.. Ok, let's try this.

"Right. Mind if I tag along?" I ask. "Whatever, Loon, just… help my bro here."

 _You have joined Spyro and Sparx party!_

Right, right, now… what to, what to…

"Close your eyes and don't focus" I hear Batter speak, "Don't think about anything at all."

I do... Somehow. Wait, what did I just do?!

Spyro the Dragon - The Legend - L6 HP 122/380 CP 160/160 - Status: Pain (Broken ribs), Cold

Sparx the Dragonfly - The Load - L6 HP 100/100 RP 3/3 CP 100/100 - Status: Cold

Alexandr the Pure - The Leader - L5 HP 250/250 CP 65/65 - Status: Pure

Gamma - The Brute - L4 HP 300/300 CP 45/45 - Status: Pure

"Heal Spyro," I hear Batter again as I open my eyes, wondering what in the world I just did, "Either items or competence will do. However, that will not remove status effects, like pain, but it may remove the cause of the status and stop its refreshing."

"Sparx, find some shack, a tent, or anything where we can cover from this cold." I say as I prepare to discharge purity into the purple dragon's body. Sparx nods and flies off, as I heal Spyro.

 _Competence - Mend the Scales - Spyro_

 _Competence - Mend the Scales - Spyro_

 _Competence - Mend the Scales - Spyro_

Spyro groans and opens his eyes, slowly, before snapping them open and staring at me.

"Whoa there big guy, hold on, I'm not done yet!" I hold him down as I channel one more healing competence into him.

 _Competence - Mend the Scales - Spyro_

"Alright, done. You feel any better?" I help him to stand up. He's shaking and cold to the touch. Must be hypothermia. Not good.

"Doesn't h-hurt as much as b-before" he says, his teeth clatter, "H-how…"

"Later, let's see if your brother found any place to get out of this cold" I cut him off and call out, "Hey, glowstick! You found anything?" In hindsight, not a good idea. I just might've alerted everyone here to our presence.

"Yeah I did" Sparx said as he returned. That was quick, "There's some half-ruined shack a bit further that way, just behind that flimsy wall" He points somewhere north. I indeed see some deserted fortifications there… Hopefully it is abandoned. "There's nobody there" Sparx says, as if reading my thoughts, "Except for these icicle guys"

The 'icicle guys' look like skeletons of humans, the kind you'd call 'big boned'. They all wear corroded suits of metal plate armor, painted black with red stripes, and… I honestly can't tell if that's a horned helmet or they have horns themselves.

And then one of those skeletons breaks free from his icy prison. And then another, and another, and another…

"Gah! The icicle guys are alive!" Sparx yells and dashes behind Spyro's back.

"Purification in progress"

Battle time!

 _Competence - Wide angle_

 _Thrall x4 - HP 75 / CP 0_

 _A dead warrior animated by malicious will._

 _Weak to Metal. Resists Fire. Poison immunity._

Before I do anything, Gamma flares, scaring Sparx even more, and blasts the furthest thrall with his Particle Ray. Its body is cut in half and shortly after collapses on the snow in a pile of bones and armor. The rest three drew their swords (a rather wide and heavy curved blades!) and rushed towards us. I pushed Spyro aside, he yelps and collapses in the snow, shivering. Cruel, I know, but I can't fight if I'm acting as a living crutch. The first 'animatronic' reaches us just in time for my Purity to be ready. So I strike, bringing his 'un-life' to an end, bones flying everywhere. The other two strike me. I'm going to be honest: ape claws and club bruises are NOTHING compared to what blades do. The sound of sliced flesh and the scent of blood filled the freezing air, and, although the cold somewhat numbed my nerves, I felt sharp pain in my right forearm and left shoulder. Clenching my teeth, I worked through a combination Ignitus taught me: claw from right to left, torso or shoulder, backhand at feet or knees to break the balance, claw from above-left, claw from below-right. Ram with horns. Alright, before ramming there should've been a "Spit a gust of flame" but I don't have fire element. Gamma joins in and strikes in unison with me, together we shatter another undead. The final one get staggered by our assault, as I perform

 _Competence - Courageous dash - Droolspirit the Undying, Thrall_

Huh? Those guys have names?

Doesn't matter as the metal shrapnel tears its bones to pieces. Wow.

"Adversaries purified"

 _300 credits received._

 _400 experience points received._

 _An Eye received._

I stared at the eye in my paw. It was looking around, rolling in my grasp, redirecting its slit pupil at… basically anything in sight.

"Whoa, Loon, those were some cool moves!" I hear Sparx come from his hiding spot behind Spyro, "Hey what you got there?" He doesn't finish and stares at eye in my paw. The eye stared back at him. With a loud scream he darts back behind Spyro who slowly gets up and looks at me surprised. I just show him the eye in my grip before shoving it in my satchel.

"Loon. Why did you do that?" Sparx asked slowly.

"…Might come useful later." I mumble, "Come on, where was that shack?"

The shack turned out to be, indeed, a shack. Built from various mismatching pieces of wood and metal, it was barely big enough for me and Spyro to fit inside. There was some kind of… kiln? Furnace? Crucible? Whatever, the main thing is, it could be used to warm this place. Just need to gather some fuel…

The only fuel in this snowy wasteland was pieces of long ruined war machinery and fortifications. I brought some pieces of wood to the shack, thrown them into the furnace, and asked Spyro to light them on fire. It took him some time to get it done - pain in his chest remained, still - but he managed to, and we had a heat source in our dwelling… for now. I went out to collect more fuel, dragging in remains of wooden shields, barricades, wooden spikes, catapults… I also dragged in a few banners to make us something to sleep on. Not much, but still better than nothing. I don't know how long it took me, but by the time I was more or less done, Spyro was asleep on his 'bed', still shivering, despite being close to heat source. With a heavy sigh I lie next to him and pull some more tattered banners over us as improvised blanket, and snuggle close to the purple dragon. Gamma, in turn, snuggles close to my side and radiates warmth into me. Hopefully none of us will freeze to death overnight. I was still shaky from… my… experience with death.

I'm definitely not looking forward to repeat it.

* * *

"Karter, have you seen Alexandr?" Ignitus asked with a worried expression on his face, "I can't seem to find him anywhere in the temple…"

"I saw him in the morning" Karter wheezed, "He just disappeared to thin air afterwards… Like that guy with a bat I saw once."

"Mon ami" came a chuckle from Zacharie, who was re-packing his backpack, "You should not worry about your little scaly friend" He chuckled again, "In fact, I'm sure he will return pretty soon with someone you hold dear. Two of them, in fact."

* * *

"We're… um, closed. Please… get out."

The Chronicler turned to the voice source.

It was a… strange-looking dragon. He was very, very skinny, his limbs seemed unnaturally long, and his movement was shaky, to put it mildly. His scales were of icy blue color, yet his horns resembled those of a ram - a trait of earth dragons.

"Excuse me?" He asked, raising a brow in surprise.

"I-I said, we're closed, get out?" The dragon's voice was shaky and raspy, and it seemed that he was hyperventilating… Plus he sounded like he was unsure if whatever he was saying was true.

"But this is MY library," said Chronicler with stern expression.

"Uh, uhhh, umm…" Now he was definitely hyperventilating, "L-Look, it's too early! You're not supposed to be here yet! Ch-chief archivist's orders!"

"Who is this 'Chief Archivist'? And calm down, young one, I mean you no harm," the Chronicler was confused. Even more that just confused.

"Leave!" suddenly shouted the dragon and stepped towards Chronicler and his mechanisms, "Leave! LEAVE!" His voice sounded more and more distorted, his body looked like it was drying out, turning into a skeleton wrapped in scales and leather. Eyes sank into his skull, jets of black smoke streamed out from empty sockets.

"Merciful Ancestors!" Old dragon backed up in shock and horror.

"Nnnnghhh!" dried up dragon launched himself into a pounce…

* * *

"Nnnnghhh…" I wake up with a pained moan. Right, I forgot my cut shoulder.

 _Competence - Mend the Scales - Alexandr_

Ah, much better. Ugh, it's still dark outside… But it seems that night actually has passed.

"Morn'n Boss" Gamma rumbles subtly.

I walk out the shed and, indeed, see a faint line of light on a horizon, slowly, very slowly growing bigger. Right, right. Now to wake up Spyro and Sparx.

"Come on guys! Time to wake up" I say as I pat sleeping purple dragon.

"Ugh, five more minutes mom" comes reply from Sparx.

Well, they do wake up eventually. I have to give them a short explanation about Gamma, and then we have our breakfast (I had to borrow it from Spyro - I left in such a hurry that I totally forgot to buy any meat from Zacharie), discussed our plans for the day, and what is our goal here is.

Well, the goal is simple: find and rescue Volteer, while avoiding Cynder's attention. For me, it also included getting some live practice (training dummies are good, but still, that all just a theory), maybe find another Add-On, and, perhaps, even finding and defeating one of the Royal Guardians.

"I suggest we go and investigate the fort on the hill" Spyro suggested, "Maybe from there we will be able to get a map or something. Get a general idea of where to go"

"I agree," said Batter to me. Of course to me, nobody else sees or hears him, "We need to get at least some idea where we are."

"Alright, so let's get going then" I say and snuff out our small fire.

"And remember, we must avoid Cynder, for now" adds Batter, "You may have some knowledge of art of fight, but you are still weak".

"Anywhere is better than this frigid cold," Sparx put a dot in our conversation.

So we move out.

Walking through the snow is tough, especially when it's deep and mushy. Took us an hour to get halfway to the bloody fort, and that wasn't even a kilometer long walk.

Then of course, there were constant complains from Sparx.

"Geesh, it's kinda boring here. I mean, we haven't encountered anyone yet except for those four icicle guys." Sparx said, then quickly added, "Not that I'm complaining…" He suddenly dashed to my face, "Hey, Loon! You know any songs?"

"What?" I raise eyebrow at the question, "Well… There is one scraping the back of my memory right now…"

"Well, let's hear it then?" said the dragonfly.

"Well… I can try to…" I shrug and clear my throat. Batter turns his face to me, "Alright, here goes nothing…"

I cleared throat once again and started singing, words and tune… Familiar, I heard it somewhere before…

 _"Do you remember the days when living was meant to be free?_

 _Not looking for fortune, not looking for fame, the beauty of life was the key?"_

Batter frowns. Spyro and Sparx look interested. Suddenly I stand on my hind legs, balancing with Gamma's help and my tail and pump my fist - erm, or at least try to, feral anatomy is odd:

 _"We lived as one, to conquer the world, a thousand dreams to come true!"_

I spread my paws as far as I can,

 _"We knew in the end will find the meaning of life and the truth!"_

I raise my head to the sky and continue,

 _"So proud and full of passion, we formed a better world,_

 _We fought against oppression and wisdom was our sword."_

Batter's frown deepens.

 _"On the path to glory we've searched the rainbow's end_

 _Lives meant to share, where's the signs that we've sent"_

Batter makes a step towards me.

 _"On sad wings of destiny we're kings without a throne-"_

And then he bumps me off balance with his bat. I fall backwards into a mound of snow with a pathetic 'oof'.

"Enough." He says as I stand up from the snow. "You alright there?" asked Spyro.

"Yeah," I say, "Although I guess I won't be singing more."

"Why?"

"My 'imaginary friend' did not like it."

"Yeah, no offence Loon, but your singing voice? Public hazard" chuckles Sparx.

We continued on in silence.

Then again came a deafening roar from above, and again a shadow flew by us.

Oh crap. We're on the white snow, and Spyro's purple scales stand out like a sore thumb, or a stumbled toe! I press myself into the snow and pretend I'm a boulder or something. Spyro does the same. Batter stands at the ready and Sparx is nowhere to be seen.

A minute pass. Another one. And another one. Nothing happens.

"I think it's gone" I whisper finally and stand up. Snow is bloody cold to lie on!

"Was that Cynder?" I head Sparx's voice coming from Spyro's direction.

"I sure hope it was her" He replies. "What? Bro, are you nuts?" Sparx's jaw drops.

"What, you'd prefer that there were two bloodthirsty dark dragons flying around?" I hiss at the dragonfly.

"Oh." Realization struck him not unlike thunder, "Then… I hope it was her, too."

More 'icicle guys' were waiting for us in the fort. This time, however, there was about a dozen of them, patrolling inner perimeter, with really, really big one standing in the center of… how is it called, courtyard? Whatever. He's standing in the middle of the fort, and looks all important with all that heavy plate armor and huge axe-sword.

"Alright. So what's the plan? You two just charge in there and wreck stuff, go nuts, right?"

"Ee-no. Charging headlong would be a poor idea, seeing how many of them are there. Plus we don't know if there are any more in there" I shake my head, rubbing my chin, trying to come up with… Well, any kind of plan, "What do you think, Spyro?"

'Well… I don't really know, but they look like… zombies to me?" he said. "Skeletons," I correct him, "By the way, your fire won't be very effective against them." He gives me a confused look, I elaborate, "Metal armor and bone matter is very heat resistant. If they were, say, alive, you could fry them by heating their armor."

"But since they are nothing more than bone and metal, burning them is not best way to go"

He nods.

"So what you were saying?" I asked him.

"Well… Since they are skeletons, maybe they can't exactly think?"

That gave me some food for thought.

 _Competence - Wide Angle_

 _Thrall x16 - HP 75 / CP 0_

 _A dead warrior animated by malicious will._

 _Weak to Metal. Resists Fire. Poison immunity._

 _Ogre Thrall - HP 250/CP 20_

 _A dead monster possessed by a spirit of raging warlord._

 _Weak to metal. Weak to Fire. Resists physical. Poison immunity._

"Right. So big one is dangerous. He's tough and can probably use magic or something," I say, "Sparx, I need your eyes and ears."

"No way!" the dragonfly dashes behind Spyro's head and sticks out his hand, pointing at me, "You're not getting my eyes like you did one yesterday!"

"I think he means metaphorically" Says Spyro to his brother, "Probably wants you to take a look at something."

"Indeed. So, here's what I need to know…"

* * *

"Oh dear…" rasped the dried dragon, his form reverting back to his… 'normal' state, "I never liked Fridays anyway…"

His eyes became glassy, breathing stopped, and his body stiffened as he dropped on the stone floor. The Chronicler was still breathing heavily. He was badly out of practice with combat, and this encounter took him by a surprise.

Not to mention the shock of having to kill another _dragon_.

Of course it was some sort of… possessed dragon, but still it was a dragon.

The old dragon looked at his bloodstained claws. Then at the corpse before him. Then back at his claws. Back at the corpse.

"Why?.." he asked dead body with shaky voice.

It didn't answer.

And why would it? It's dead, after all. He killed that dragon.

The Chronicler swallowed an uneasy feeling in his throat. Now he definitely needed to get to the bottom of it.

* * *

"H-hey, big ugly!"

The ogre turns his head and sees annoying ball of _living_ light hovering slightly above him.

"W-whacha looking at? Never seen a dragonfly before?"

It growls and swings its sword at small orb of light.

"C-come on-n, I can d-do better than this!" Taunts the ball of light and dashes to the fort entrance. The ogre growls, getting attention from thralls, and commands them to chase the annoying ball of _living_ light. Thralls growl and howl, and charge after it.

But just as they cluster together to get through a rather narrow entrance, someone shouts from behind the wall:

"NOW, GAMMA!"

* * *

"NOW, GAMMA!" I shout as my Add-On flares up. Sparx dashes past us, and time slows as first few thralls pop from behind the corner.

 _Purification in progress…_

 _Competence - Flash of Pain_

Bright flash comes up. Thralls in front rows slow down significantly, the back rows piling up on them, chaos ensues. I swear I saw Batter grin as Spyro lobbed a fireball into the clusterfuck Gamma made.

Boom!

Not enough to kill all the thralls, but most of them are on fire now. Well do we have something to fix this, Gamma, oh do we!

 _Competence - Planar Blast_

Bang!

Pieces of bones and armor fly upwards. That's about ten or so thralls done. The rest are quickly taken care of by Spyro as I close distance with positively pissed off Ogre.

 _Competence - Courageous Dash - Rusputtin the Returned, Ogre Thrall_

I crash right through it, stunning the ogre, and dealing Metal damage to it. Well, it doesn't seem to be all that impressed by my stun - it only lasts a few seconds, after which the bastard charges at me.

Five meter tall, heavily armored skeleton, charges at me.

I'm so surprised by how fast it moves - I don't even!

Oh God, Ancestors, Alien Precursors and everything else, did anyone got license plate of that freight train that hit me?!

While I'm trying to pull myself back together, Gamma tries to fend off the ghoulish ogre. Spyro joins the fray, too. Well, that draws aggro away from me, but Gamma's healthbar ends up taking some damage, too. A scream of pain brings me back to relative consciousness. I turn to see Spyro being hit by ogre's wicked blade. Alright, that's it! I just healed him, Ancestors damn it!

 _Competence - Courageous Dash - Rusputtin the Returned, Ogre Thrall_

 _Competence - Particle Ray - Rusputtin the Returned, Ogre Thrall_

And there! It's dead now!

The ogre is jerking inside its armor, throwing its head back. Suddenly, cracks appear on the chest plate. They spread rapidly through the metal, with loud screeching noise.

And then his armor bursts into pieces, undead creature pops out from it, leaving its legs behind, transforming into a floating skeletal torso with head and arms.

"Oh crap!" all three of us gasp. Well, we all say our own thing, but this is the general idea.

 _Competence - Wide Angle_

 _Wraith - HP 250/CP20_

 _A dead monster, possessed by a spirit of raging warlord._

 _Fast - Weakness to Metal. Resists Fire, highly resists Physical. Immune to poison._

"Look out!"

Dodge to the side form the axe-sword-thing it wields. Yeah, it's fast now. Much faster than it was before.

We just lash at it with all we got. Gamma slows it down with his Flash of Pain, I stun it with my Courageous Dash, and Spyro sets it on fire and jumps up in the air and hits it with his claws and horns. While airborne.

 _Adversaries purified._

 _1500 Credits received_

 _2000 Experience points received_

 _Two Eyes received._

 _A Desperation received._

A desperation?

You know, I kinda wonder…

 _Inventory-Check_

 _Eye - Reveals some enemy characteristics._

 _Desperation - An object utilized in combat. Deals 10% of MAX HP damage to all adversaries in combat. Reduces adversaries' morale. Ineffective against Guardians._

"Loon? Why in the world do you collect those eyes?" Sparx asks in a rather deadpan tone.

"Might come in useful later" I shrug, "Let's go into… What is this… Barracks?" I look at semi-collapsed buildings within the fort, one looking more maintained than the rest. I just hope they won't come down on top of us. That would be unfortunate.

Just as Spyro and Sparx enter it, I feel Batter place his hand on my shoulder.

"Yes?" I turn my head to face him.

"Nice display of thinking there," He says, with same deadpan expression he wears constantly. However, his voice has small amount of parental pride in it. "However, this popped something I have not yet seen."

"Huh?" I tilt my head slightly.

"The unclean are divided into two types: Ghouls and Phantoms."

"Ghouls are abominations of flesh and bone, incapable of standing against physical world and its forces. Thus they are vulnerable to physical harm."

"Phantoms, on the other hand, are ectoplasmic beings that have no physical form. They are unaffected by physical nature, and can only be harmed by attacks that affect the nature of the universe itself."

"Magic." I say, rubbing my chin, "So what's the problem?"

"This 'Ogre' you killed was a hybrid of the two types."

I stare at four-eyed human.

"Think of it as of possession. Whatever foul spirit has been using this corpse did not want to part with it, so it dragged some of his physical shell with it when it was banished."

"That explains why it had such high resistance to…" I see Spyro and Sparx come out the building with rather disturbed expressions. "Guys? What's wrong?"

"Yeeeeah, you know what, Loon? Let's not go in there." Sparx says, "No, seriously, let's don't."

"Apes. Dead. Lots of them." Spyro adds, "And some are… flayed. Others…"

"Ok ok you're right, screw this place" I say quickly. Fuck, what sick thing would… "They were being prepared for reanimation." I suddenly have this realization.

There is a bloody necromancer on the loose?!

"Well, at least we know that the undead are not fond of apes, right?" Sparx forces out a smile.

"…Shit." I have another realization, "If that is so… Spyro, how many bodies were there?"

"I-I didn't count. Several dozens, maybe" he shivers.

"We've got to find Volteer and get him out of here. Pronto" I get confused looks from dragon and dragonfly, "This means fast!"

"Wow-wow-wow, Loon, what's the hurry?"

"Glowstick, there is a fucking dark dragon on the loose," I say, throwing away my speech restrictions for the time, "Do you want to have another one, undead dark dragon at that?"

"Point taken," the dragonfly nods, "Buuuut, you need to get that mouth of yours washed. With soap."

"Sod off" I chuckle.

* * *

"How in the name of Great Holy Flame did he got in THERE?!" Ignirus roared.

It did not make any sense! It would take at least three days of flight to get to Dante's Freezer, and about week and a half to get there by foot (if you get lucky with wind for sails, that is). Yet there he was, white dragon, fighting alongside Spyro.

"Karter! Would you kindly get Zacharie here for a moment?" Ignitus turned to the archway leading outside, to the balcony where two creatures (humans, as Alexandr called them. Although Karter insisted that he was something called 'Elsen') lived.

"I, hhh, I can't do th-hhh-at," came a reply from the wheezing man, "He just… disappeared."

"What." Ignitus' orange eyes glared at elsen.

"Disappeared. Like, hhh, one moment hhh-he's here, and then he's not."

Old fire dragon grumbled something and returned to his observations over the pool of visions.

"Alexandr, you are _so_ getting grounded…"

* * *

Oh I just love crossroads and T-junctions!

"Right. So now what, we have two paths to go," I say with a sigh, "I hate to say it, but we have to break up the team for a moment"

Of all the buildings, only this one had something interesting in it. Well, other than weapons, dissecting tools and necromancy supplies. Well, at least some of them came in handy, namely, crystals. Green crystals restore energy, red ones restore health. Blue ones are most rare, as they are gift of Ancestors, as Ignitus says. They hold most important treasure: knowledge.

 _1000 Experience points received_

 _Alexandr advances to level 6!_

 _Gamma advances to level 5!_

Anyway, as I was saying, this was the only building with something of interest to us. First, it had map of surrounding area. Crude map, but a map nevertheless. There was another fort nearby, where Cynder's forces were stationed. However, there also was a network of tunnels and caves below, which were connecting the forts together as well.

"Spyro, you take the upper path. Your wings give you greater mobility in the open. The caves will restrict that advantage…" I look back at nubs where my wings should be, then at Gamma, "While my scales color provides excellent camouflage on the snow, my mobility is very limited when in the open. I'll take the caves." Spyro nods. "Another thing, Spyro," I add, "There might be... Things on your way. Unnatural things that seem to be immune to your claws and horns. Ghosts, if you will," I pause, getting the 'you aren't serious' expression from a purple dragon and dragonfly, "Just... Trust me. I had an encounter with them already. If you encounter them burn them. They are immune to physical harm, but magic they can't escape."

"I'll keep that in mind, Alexandr," Spyro nods, still not completely trusting me yet it seems.

I tap my claws on the floor, "Alright, let's get going, we've got a Guardian to save, now!"

"Yeah, good luck in the creepy ice caves Loon" Sparx said.

Something sparks in my head.

"Hey, one more thing" I say, as Spyro was about to leave for next fort in the distance, "I've been thinking… Alexandr sometimes is quite a mouthful to say, so…" I pause, feeling as if something gets warmer in my gut, "Call me Xan for short."

The dragon nods in response, "Very well. Good luck, Xan"

"Yeah, try not to die or get lost, Loon"

"You too take care. See you ahead," I nod and turn left, descending into dimly lit catacombs.

* * *

 _Competence - Wide Angle_

 _Alexandr 'Xan' the Pure - L6 - The Leader HP275 CP75_

 _An aspiring dragon purifier. Light resistance to ectoplasm. Light weakness to memories._

 _Gamma - L5 - The Brute HP 350 CP 50_

 _Combat Add-on. Focuses on ranged damage and crippling of the adversaries. Resists physical._

* * *

And wow. Already I doubt my decision.

"Turn left here"

I mean, Spyro is mobile, alright. He can do that double-jump, and glide move, and even somewhat fly, but his scales… His purple color stands out in the snow too much!

"Now turn right. Skip next crossing and turn left on next one"

Especially if one will look from above. Damn it! If Cynder sees him, she'll snatch him before he'll know anything!

"That's not left"

"Batter, did you memorize the entire map back there?" I turn to my companion.

"Yes," he answered, then added, "Purification in progress"

"What?" I managed to say, before being barraged by a gust of snow.

 _Competence – Wide Angle_

 _Chilled Apparition – HP 120 CP 20_

 _A mischievous or malicious spirit haunting a cloud of ice dust._

 _Weak to Fire._

I sigh. Will worry about Spyro later. Now, _battle time_.

* * *

"Bro, you know, I somewhat regret this decision already"

"Ah, come on Sparx. We'll be fine," Spyro said as they made their way through the snow to the fort.

Sparx pouted, "Well, I'm just, you know… Worried. I mean, snow's white, right?" he dashed to be in front of Spyro's face, "And you're, well, purple. And fat. Big fat purple dot on white snow, you get my drift?"

Spyro looked up to the skies.

"Yes, I see what you mean. But this is a risk I'm willing to take, I guess. We must keep going. Ignitus is counting on us"

They saw that the next fort was, in fact, a battlefield between apes and ghouls.

"Divide and conquer, right?" Sparx said. Spyro nodded, "Yes. Let's wait for one side gain an advantage, and finish off the winners."

* * *

"You're doing this on purpose, don't you?"

I rolled my eyes at Batter.

"Boss, ye min' if I ask, but who's this feller that keeps following you and mostly contributin' deadpan comments and advices?"

"I'm surprised you didn't ask earlier, Gamma. He's Batter. He's my mentor in the way of purification. And yes, I do this on purpose. I want to explore, because who knows what you can find if you look in every nook and cranny" I explain as I once again take a 'wrong' turn, entering a rather large cave, "Like this here place," I pause, looking at the sight, "Huh"

The cave actually looks like it once was a part of a dungeon or something like that. There are some bricks visible through thick layer of ice, and there is a door… But it's out of reach. No way could I dig through five meters of solid ice with just my claws.

In the center of the cave, however, lies something more interesting. Dead in the middle of the cave stands a solid ice shard… With a bear wearing a tuxedo, monocle and top hat frozen within. He's standing on all fours – well, threes actually, since his front paw is reaching out for a bag full of gems just a little bit outside the ice shard he's trapped in. His expression is an interesting mix of pain, anger, greed and desperation. I could not help but chuckle at this guy. Whatever was happening around this place, he thought grabbing bag of gems would be more important than running for his life.

"Well, shoot, buddy. Looks like you almost got it," I smirk. I do feel horrible for sassing this long dead bear guy, but it feels that he had it coming. I made a step towards the bag with gems.

I swear at this moment his expression became angrier.

Nah, just my imagination.

Batter stands near the entrance, leaning on the wall and looks at me. I sit before the frozen bear, and rip the bag from ice. It tears and falls apart, gems scatter slightly. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, amethysts. Treasure! Treasure! I feel a soft purr build up in my throat as I chuckle. Well, looks like I do have a bit of a dragon in me.

"I guess you won't need this anymore, pal?" I ask the frozen bear.

There it is again! His expression gets angrier?

I frown. Something is off. "Batter? Do you feel something?" He shrugs, watching me.

Right. Whatever then.

 _Gems, total value of 2000 credits received!_

So I have around 4000 credits in total. Nice. Can't remember the price Zacharie asked for armor and weapons, but well! I got much more credits already than I used to get from smashing dummies in dojo. I stand up and wave the bear goodbye. "See you never again I guess" I say as I walk to the entrance to the cave.

And then I hear loud cracking from behind.

"Really?" I moan and turn around, assuming battle stance.

The icy prison covers with deep, wide cracks as the form inside begins to twitch.

"Mmmm…" a raspy moan comes from within the cracking ice pile, "M-mine…"

And then this icy prison exploded, revealing a large, hulking figure with burning white eyes. Still in tuxedo and top hat, and monocle.

"Purification in progress"

 _Competence – Wide Angle_

 _Moneybags – HP 1000 CP 250_

 _A ghoul that could not let his earthly possessions go._

 _Grabby paws x4 – HP 25 CP 0_

 _Phantasmagorial manifestation of one's greed._

Well, shit.

He growls at me and takes a swipe with his claws – which elongate at least four times as he makes a strike. Holy crap!

And, by the ancestors, they _hurt_!

And now I'm bleeding, too.

 _Competence – Courageous Dash - Moneybags_

It stuns him for a fraction of second. Damn, what's up with those sudden resistances?

 _Competence – Particle ray - Moneybags_

PEW. I never noticed the sound Gamma's competences made. Interesting. Well, we slightly damaged this bear-ghoul-thing. And apparently pissed it off.

 _Alexandr - Want!_

 _Alexandr - Need!_

 _Alexandr - Need!_

 _Gamma - Want!_

 _Alexandr - Violent Maul_

 _Alexandr HP 184 / CP 51 – Bleed, Palsy, Shattered_

 _Gamma HP 332 / CP 45 - Pure_

 _ **Bleed**_ – _Losing 3% max HP each 2 seconds for 60 seconds; can kill; cured by healing._

 _ **Palsy**_ – _Stops physical motion. Does not affect purity charge rate. Lasts 5 seconds._

 _ **Shattered**_ – _Reduces armor value by 70%_

Well, shit.

No, wait, let me emphasize.

Well, SHIT.

 _Item – Luck Ticket - Alexandr_

 _Bleed removed._

"Thanks Gamma" I mutter through clenched teeth, as my jaw is paralyzed.

Well, actually it's not just my jaw, my whole body. So all I can do right now is… well, wait and brace myself for another attack, as Gamma tries to fend off those damned paws things.

 _Alexandr - Double Rend_

 _Competence - Planar Blast - Area (Grabby paws x4)_

A flash of light and compression wave washes over my body, as all four sets of phantom paws disappear. On the other hand, I'm down to 197 HP again and bleeding as well.

Perfect.

 _Competence - Mend the scales - Alexandr_

 _Bleed removed._

Now time to beat this guy into submission. Who does he think he is? Have a taste of MY claws, you greedy abomination!

So I unleash a flurry of attacks at the monster, slashing its flesh with my claws, leaving bright marks where my hits connect.

 _Gimmies!_

I blankly stare at four more 'Grabby paws' spawn around the bear-ghoul.

 _Planar Blast - Moneybags (Moneybags, Grabby paws x4)_

Nope. I'm not having any more of that crap.

 _Competence - Battle Rally_

That's more like it! Let's rip this guy to shreds!

I continue peppering him with my attacks, throwing in a Courageous Dash every now and then, saving Gamma's energy to blast off his summoned minions.

* * *

The battle between the undead and the apes was coming to an end. The ghouls were ultimately defeated, but inflicted heavy casualties on the apes. And just as they started to recover from battle, a certain purple dragon rushed in and rained havoc in the remains of the troops. This is barely a fight – more suitable description would be 'slaughter'.

"Hah, and those guys thought they would be a match for us!" Sparx taunted nobody in particular, as Spyro was catching up his breath. Suddenly, a motion below the rubble draws the attention of the dragonfly, "Hey, bro, look there!"

A small ape crawls from beneath the debris and stands up, holding his stomach. His face is stuck in a blank expression, his eyes stare somewhere through the walls of fort, and he's visibly swaying from side to side, barely standing upright.

"Geesh, Sparx, relax. I don't think this guy will be causing us any troubles…" Spyro says, watching the ape, which falls back on all fours and crawls towards them. He reached out his arm, and rasped loudly, "H-help… me…"

"You've got to be kidding" Sparx covered his face with his palm before continuing, "You dudes just tried to kill us, and now you're asking for help?"

"Y-you d-don't unders-stand…" the ape continues, standing back up and holding his head by sides, "I-I'm… I'm very sorry…" He coughs; a drop of black ooze escapes his mouth. His eyes become bloodshot, as he begins to breathe louder and harder, "P-please, help me…" Another cough, more black ooze leaking from his mouth, and nose, as he stumbled towards shocked pair, "H-help me…" more ooze – even his eyes leak the stuff now – "Help me!" He suddenly grabs Spyro's shoulders and tries to shake him, black ooze leaking non-stop from his mouth, eyes, ears and nose, and black veins spread over his head as his expression turns into maddened desperation. He shouts at the purple dragon, " **HELP ME!** "

And then his head explodes into a fountain of black goo and smoke. His grip released, and his body began to fall back – only to be stopped by some unknown force. Leaning backwards at awkward angle, standing on two legs and one arm, his second arm grabbed a board from the ground and swung it at the dragon.

"OH WHAT THE?!" Sparx dashed away, and Spyro jumped back from the… thing the ape became. With loud hiss, it hobbled towards the dragon, swinging the board madly; black goo kept jetting from his neck.

"Screw this bro, let's get the hell out of here!" Sparx shouted at Spyro who in turn fired a jet of flames at the creature. It gasped and threshed a bit, shouting something like 'Yabba, my icing!', engulfed in flames, but then ignored them completely and bashed the purple dragon with its board. The hit makes him sit flat on his ass and take a few more bashes, before hurling a fireball at the corrupted ape. The monster howls, engulfed in flames and bashes dragon's shoulder, Spyro gasping in pain, feeling a bruise forming under his scales. Next attack he barely dodges and throws the abomination up in the air, and, jumping after it, lashes out with his claws.

"What in the world are you?!" Spyro growls through clenched teeth.

The monster did not answer, continuing its relentless assault.

* * *

The monster I was fighting was still raging, but its attacks became more clumsy and slow. It must have run out of competence points. Not that this helped me much – I was bleeding, my CP were dangerously low – I probably could afford a single heal more – and even Gamma's glow seemed to dim. To add insult to injury, we also were out of luck tickets and silver flesh. Just peachy.

Moneybags swipes at me once again, but I duck out of harm way, and Gamma stabs the ghoul in its side. We both stay silent, concentrating on taking down this surprisingly tough adversary. Next swipe comes in low, I jump to avoid it. That was… Well, the better choice I had, as opposed to getting mauled. As I landed I felt lightheaded and weak, my front legs bucked in and I fell face first on a cold stone floor for a moment. I scramble back to my standing stance, just in time to avoid another blow from the raging ghoul. This has to end, NOW.

I gather the remaining of my strength and pounce the monster, grabbing his torso with my claws as hard as I can. I use my hind legs and claws to rip and tear the corrupted flesh. Somewhere on the side of my vision, I see Batter raising an eyebrow in a dull curiosity.

Then Gamma flares and stabs his longer 'fingers' into the ghoul's side.

Moneybags jerks in place… and stands still, as glowing orange lines exit his body from the other side.

He does not move after that… Then collapses on his back with dull 'thud'.

"Adversaries purified"

 _3500 experience received!_

 _Alexandr advances to level 7!_

 _Competence unlocked:_ _ **Mend the Flesh**_ – _Heals a lot of damage – 15 CP_

 _Gamma advances to level 6!_

 _Competence unlocked:_ _ **Neutron Ray**_ – _special attack of mediocre importance – 12 CP_

 _Competence unlocked:_ _ **Combat Trance**_ – _Passive – Increases Add-On defense by 5% when in combat with multiple adversaries, max 5._

 _Competence - Mend the Scales - Alexandr_

"Ahhhh… Much better" I mumble, semi-closing my eyes. This… Is strangely satisfying victory.

* * *

"I think… His armor took over his brain…"

Spyro and Sparx watched the abomination the ape become shift back to its original form, spouting those words, before collapsing into a dead heap, dropping off some crystals and a few gems.

"Bro… What in the world just happened here?.." Finally asked the dragonfly.

"Sparx… Maybe this is what Xan tried to warn us about…" Spyro said, looking at dead ape. This was wrong. He… Probably did a lot of bad things before, yes – but he definitely did not deserve to go through something like… this.

"Meaning…" Sparx slowly said, his hands dropping down as he looked at his brother with wide open eyes, "Loon… Is not… A total loon?"

"I… I don't know…" young dragon shivered at the prospect of meeting more of those things, "Come. We need to find Volteer… Before anything bad happens to him."

Suddenly, a chuckle reached their ears.

* * *

I walk through the caverns, frowning. Batter still dictates the directions, but this time I actually follow them. I'm in no shape to fight anything right now. In fact, I could use some quick rest to heal my wounds…

Too bad it's too cold to rest, actually.

I take another turn, and to my surprise – a pleasant surprise! – I see…

* * *

"Z-zacharie?" Spyro asked in confusion.

* * *

"Why, Buenos dias, mon ami!" Zacharie replies with, I assume, a smile under his mask, "Such a wonderful day, don't you think?"

"How did you get here?!" I ask him, "Not that I'm not happy to see you, but – how?"

* * *

"Oh, a merchant has his secrets," Zacharie nodded to Spyro, "Just know that I'll be wherever you will go before you will be there. That's what item merchants do, don't they?" He winked at nobody in particular.

"Alright, but, hey! Why are you here anyway, weirdo?" Sparx chimed into the conversation.

* * *

"Well, I'm a merchant, mon ami! And I need to make money somehow, correct?" Zacharie smiled, and I nodded, "Thus here I am, yours truly – offering you the best supplies you can find around here!"

"That's actually great news!" I smiled, and opened my pouch, reaching inside to pick some credits and gems, "I'd like to restock after…"

* * *

"…A rather unpleasant encounter," finished Spyro. Sparx nodded.

"Well, mon amis! I have everything you need to heal your wounds, refill your energy, give you strength…"

* * *

"…And most importantly, protect you and increase your offensive abilities!" Zacharie placed his backpack on the ground and once again I felt him smiling under his mask, "So let us do business, mon ami!"

"Alright" I nodded at him, "Let's see what you've got"

* * *

"Here's what I have," Zacharie said and opened his backpack, revealing a list of things.

"Wow… Armor sounds useful, but it's… so expensive!" Spyro mused out loud.

* * *

"Of course it is, mon ami!" Zacharie chuckled, "There aren't many armor in this world tailored for whelplings!"

"Ah, I see" I nod, "Right. Then I'll have…"

* * *

In the end, Spyro bought himself a leather helmet, bracers and kneeguards. He also got some more meat and – just in case – some luck tickets and silver flesh.

* * *

I bought a full set of leather armor – a helmet, bracers, chestguard, and legguards. Then I also bought something called 'Hardened Scales' and 'Color of Ingenuity'.

"Alright. How do I 'equip' those?" I look at small pile of pale cyan powder and a singular scale.

"Simple, really!" Zachari said, winking at – wait, am I seeing things again or did he just winked at Batter?

"Okay, Zacharie. I demand answer!" I stomp my paw and point at Batter, "Do you see _him_?"

"Oh, mon ami!" Zacharie chuckled again, "I told you, a merchant has his secrets…"

"Batter, do you know him?" I squint at my mentor. He… ugh. Stands with his usual deadpan expression. I sigh, "Yeah, be that way, 'imaginary friend'. So how do I use those?"

"Simple! Just apply them to your body and watch them affect you…"

Wow. That simple? Alright. Well, there is a scale on my shoulder, very similar in size and shape to the one I hold in my paw… What if I put it on there…

Whoa! That tickles actually! I feel scales spread over my body, more defined, more robust, and… well, more plentiful. As if there were more scales in total on me.

The powder I simply rubbed into my arm-paw. It spreads over my scales – the color doesn't change much, but if look closely, one could see that they have a slight cyan tint. Very, very subtle one.

"Oh, well. Feels interesting…" I mumble as I move around a bit, "Nice. Like natural skin!"

Oh.

"Wait, that came out wrong," I facepaw.

Zacharie only chuckled.

Getting some more luck tickets and silver flesh, I said goodbye to Zacharie and continued onwards through the caves.

* * *

Eventually we got out… But the surprises were not over.

"Okay, how does this work?!" I ask when we finally leave the caves. We somehow ended up high on the mountainside – I guess it's a mountainside anyway, judging by strong wind and steep slope going down.

"Hey, look here," I heard Batter say with… amusement in his voice? What?

I look. He's standing next to a long decayed dead soldier, clad in heavy plate armor. This guy would be at least six meters tall! Seriously, what the hell is wrong with this world?

"Yeah… Hope he's not gonna spring to life or something…" I mumble, "So where to next?"

"Our goal is to get down from the mountains we're on currently," he pauses and points at the shield, "And this would be the fastest way down"

I understand what he means a moment later.

"You can't be _serious_. You're not _**serious**_ ," I shake my head, "Please tell me you're not..."

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Boss, shut it!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Left! Left!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"Boss, s'rsly! Stop yelling!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

We're going down, fast. Really fast! Like turbo fast! AND WE'RE GOING FASTER!

"Right! Then left, quick!"

I try to steer the shield we're riding on, clinging to it with all my strength. Oh did I mention I keep screaming? I know! It doesn't make me look heroic or manly BUT COME ON I'M SCARED! I'M RIDING DOWN THE FREAKING MOUNTAIN ON AN ANCIENT METAL SHIELD!

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"I find this experience enjoyable," I hear Batter's voice. He almost sounds… amused? Excited? Having fun? Now if I wasn't busy screaming, I'd be surprised by that.

* * *

"Spyro, you need to retreat! You don't look too good bro!"

The purple dragon rolled to the side, evading the axe of an Ogre. This fort was a battlefield between the undead, apes and the abominations some apes became. Spyro decided not to stick around for long, getting out of the gates and running towards the bridge over a deep-looking crevice, zapping approaching skeletons with his newly-acquired electric breath, throwing them around and into each other. However, even with that he was hit a few times, until he got blocked by an Ogre Thrall. That was most unfortunate, as there was no way around him without fighting through a crowd of thralls and apes… Well, it just happened so that Spyro got drawn into the fight against his will. And right now Sparx's advice was very appropriate.

Then, from the mountain came at first distant scream, then it got closer and closer and closer…

"aaaaaaaAAAAAAAA!"

"What in the world?" Sparx turns towards the source of screaming, "Bro, look!"

Spyro turned his head – everyone in the field seemed to turn their heads towards the source of screaming – and saw Alexandr, dressed in leather armor, sliding down the mountain on a shield at breakneck speed.

"GETOUTTAMYWAY!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, "HOWDOISTOPTHISTHING!"

Spyro barely managed to jump out of the way as Xan sped by, crashing into a smaller ape, which threw his makeshift sled up in the air with him. In flight, he collided with Ogre Thrall, knocking it off its feet – and sending himself flying even higher.

Straight over the edge of the cliff.

"AH MOTHERF…!" Came a shout from Xan as he disappeared in the crevice.

"Xan!" Spyro gasped in shock and ran towards the edge, thankfully his adversaries decided to deal with each other first, "XAN!"

"Down here!" Alexandr was hangin on his Add-on at the other side of the crevice, few meters below the ledge, struggling to latch to slippery walls, "You got a rope or something up there?! I can't get a grip!" He then stared at Gamma, eyes going wide, "Oh for fuck's - no-no-no!"

Moment later, his add-on lost grip on the icy wall.

"XAN!" Spyro yelled in terror.

"WOAH GAMMA HANG OOOOOOON!" was the last thing heard from Xan as he fell down below and disappeared in the fog.

* * *

Stay in your coma…

Stay in your coma…

 _Stay in your coma…_

 _Stay in your coma..._

 _Stay in your coma..._

 _ **Stay in your coma...**_

 _ **Stay in your coma...**_

 _ **Stay - in - your - coma...**_

* * *

Ughhhh… _Fuck_ , not this shit again. Uhhhhg…

"Boss? Yer good?"

"Oh fuck off Gamma," I moan. My limbs hurt, my body hurt, my head hurt, hell, my EVERYTHING hurt! I fell down good two-three hundred meters! And probably should be a splatter on the ice I'm laying on. But nope. I'm alive again - thank you, Joker card - but hurt like hell. Well, at least I don't want to paint the crevice I'm in with contents of my stomach… Alright, I want to but not enough to actually perform the act.

Uh, and one more thing...

"Wait, Gamma?" I ask and turn onto my belly with another groan as Gamma applies Luck Ticket on me, "How comes you are not damaged, like, at all?!"

"Add-ons are beings of higher metaphysical process. They are unaffected by most of what the world's residents consider to be 'normal'," Batter replied instead, "Mine once saved me when I jumped down the factory chimney"

"Do I even want to know?" I moan in response.

 _Competence - Mend the Flesh - Alexandr_

Yeah, feels better. Not much, but better.

Oh man, this adventure is already proving to be quite an experience…

"You get the FUCK away from me!"

What? What am I hearing?..

"Get lost you fucking ABOMINATIONS! This is my land! NOT YOURS!"

Alright. This is interesting. I go roughly in the direction of the voice. Before I can go too far though, I'm distracted by an ape flying through the air and smashing into the cliff. He impacted so hard I heard his bones crack, and blood gush from his nostrils and mouth. Wow.

"Piss off you SHIT-GHOSTS!"

This time it's ogre thrall that flies by and shatters into pieces on the wall.

I run a bit further and see a huge ice dragon fighting apes and thralls at the same time. Correction: literally an ice dragon. As in, his body is made of crystal ice. Straight lines and sharp edges make his body, a ridge or sharp-looking spines goes along his back. His wings flared, adorned with glittering ice crystals, and membranes see-through.

"FUCK OFF YOU BALLS OF FESTERING FLESH!" He roars in deep voice, and smashes few apes and thralls into a bloody paste, "GET OUT OF MY LANDS!"

The rest of apes and undead decide to take smart option and flee. The dragon looked where they ran and breathes heavily.

"Impressive" I say quietly, "Hey! Sir!"

He turns around, FAST. And glares at me.

"You!" He makes a step towards me, I back off a bit. I really don't like the tone of his voice, "You! IT'S YOU! YOU COLORLESS PIECE OF SHIT!"

Wow. That's… helluva cold welcome. And another cringeworthy pun.

"I KNEW! I knew you little shit would be trouble!" he continues, "Should've SMASHED YOU WHEN YOU WERE STILL AN EGG! But NO! That MORON of a firedrake TOLD YOU'RE SPECIAL!" He huffed, a cloud of his breath washed over me, making me shiver from sudden cold, "So, pray tell me, you little waste of life, WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU IN HERE?"

"Uh… I'm here to purify the spectres?.." I gulped. His eyes flashed with hate.

"I see. So YOU are the fucking PHANTOM KING THAT DECIDED TO SNATCH MY BELOVED LAND?!" He roared at me.

"No, I'm not a…"

"HOW DARE YOU!" His muzzle bumped into me, making my stagger back, "Listen here, you sorry waste of an egg yolk. I'll only tell this once. You GET THE FUCK OFF MY FREEZER, you TAKE YOUR MOTHERFUCKING GHOSTS, and YOUR DAMNED MONKEYFUCKS, shove them into THAT BLACK BITCH'S ASS, take HER, AND! BEGONE! FROM! MY! LAND!" I felt his spit on me, " And if I ever, ever, EVER see you again, I WILL FUCKING MURDER YOU INTO OBLIVION!"

With that, he took off into the air.

"Wow… What an asshole," I wiped some of his spit from my face, "So now what?"

"Follow him," Batter said, moving slightly ahead of me and looking up, as if trying to figure out where he went, "Judging by his behaviour and what he just said, this might be the Royal Guardian of this land"

"Maybe we should get out of this ravine, or whatever we're in right now first," I looked around, and sighed. No cave or stair or even ladder in sight.

* * *

"Grrrah!" I facepaw. Hard.

Yeah, I found a cave alright. As well as found out that it's the only way to go, too - the ravine ended with steep climb on one end, and just as steep drop on the other. But what I found in cave was - you guessed it - another maze of tunnels, stairways, passageways, hallways… All of which somehow were looping into each other!

That's it. I can't keep going any more. When we entered this cave, the day already been declining. And… how much time did I spend here, walking through this looped maze? Anyway, I'm exhausted.

"Batter, I need to rest," I say. He nods. I lie down… well, I start to. I'm interrupted by Gamma's movement. Right. So I lie down on the side where my Add-On is. It's warm. Well, warmer than sleeping on the plain floor.

"Goodnight, Batter" I mumble as I close my eyes.

* * *

"Wow. I mean… Could it be a ghost or whatever?"

"WHAT?!" I jump on my feet, fully awake and look around, Gamma flared wide, "Where? WHERE?!"

"Woah Loon, calm down!"

Oh.

"Hello, Glowstick," I say with a slight grumble, "Hey, is Spyro with you?"

"Yeah, I'm here" I hear Spyro's voice, and turn to see the dragon coming closer, "Xan? Is it really you?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, right?" I groan and rub my forehead with a sigh, "Look, it's hard to explain, but know that I'm alive and well, alright?" He looks at me in confusion, causing me to look at Batter for advise. He shrugs. "I'll explain when we're back to the Temple, alright?"

Spyro looks at me with suspicion, but nods.

"Right. Now let's try to find our way out of this stupid location. It almost drove me nuts yesterday" I say with a deep, sad sigh.

We walk. And walk. And walk. And walk. After unknown amount of time walking, strange things start happen.

Like right now we're standing on the ceiling of the hallway.

"Okay, I don't know how it works," Sparx mumbles.

Next turn, we're standing on the wall.

Next turn, we're on another wall.

Next turn we're in the air and fall down into the pit that used to be a corner.

Next turn…

"Okay, how did we end up like this, considering we're walking ALL TOGETHER?!"

I'm on the ceiling, Spyro on the floor, and Batter is falling through the hallway in a loop, approaching terminal velocity with his usual stoic expression.

A really stupid idea came to my head after another of Batter's passes.

"Hey, Spyro! Could you kindly jump up?" I ask the purple dragon. He looks at me with confusion, "Trust me, I want to check something quick"

He jumps - and so do I. But while Spyro just jumps, I grab him.

"Check this - Atnigra-aaaaaaahh!"

Yeah, not the brightest idea. Now we join Batter in his fall. Except we don't fall in loop. We fall down, fast, slide down the wall which suddenly turns into a slope and at full speed slide into a large cave. Our journey ended with a collision with an icy pillar. Our speed has slowed down by that time, but still we still felt that.

"Ouch"

"Offf. Yeah, I'm never ever doing that again," I groan and stand up, "Well, this is new, at least"

We look around. Suddenly it comes to me.

"I saw this place before!" I gasp, "This is the place where Volteer was!.. But… Where's everyone?" I move around with a frown. Not an ape in sight, but there were firepits - long since extinguished. There is another entrance, but it's gated… Probably a way from one of the fortresses, "And where's Volteer?" This is where I notice something I didn't see in my dream. A giant, heavily-armored skeleton is sitting on the throne, frozen inside ice crystal. Knowing my luck, I assume battle stance and inch around the cave.

"I found him!" I hear Spyro shout. Well, duh, how could I forget this small alcove in plain sight?

In there, lied Volteer. A sad sight. His body is skin and bones, his breath is ragged and shaky. On his side are many, many scars and wounds. Heavy muzzle weights his head down, and, hearing us closing in, his eyes - of beautiful topaz-yellow color - opened in pure terror. He weakly tried to get away from us, whining and whimpering, almost tearing up.

"Hey hey hey hey, big guy. Calm down, we're not apes… and not undead, alright?" I say calmly, but that does little to ease up the Storm guardian.

That's when Sparx's terrified scream comes from behind us, followed by sound of shattering ice.

"Perfect," I groan and turn around in a jump. Spyro does the same.

"Purification in progress"

 _Competence - Wide Angle_

 _Ice King_

 _HP 1000 CP 100_

 _Once rightful ruler of these lands, now stuck in perpetual nightmare. Resists fire and physical. Immune to poison. Weak to metal._

Great.

"Alright. Let's dance, you ironclad bastard!" I growl, "Spyro! Let's attack from both sides!"

Spyro charges to Ice King's right flank, I charge to his left. And we maul away. Our adversary summoned a cloud of ice spikes and launched them at us - we barely had time to dodge.

 _Competence - Courageous Dash - Ice King_

 _Competence - Neutron Ray - Ice King_

The stun did not even affect him, he just reeled back a bit. Switching his attention to me, he swung his axe at me, again, I dodge. Spyro lobs fireballs from the distance at him, setting the giant on fire. It does not last long, because an icy mist surrounds him, extinguishing the flames - and giving him a shield. Oh, now we're talking!

Moment later he discards his axe in favor of a large mace, which he swings in a wide arc in an attempt to hit us. Spyro took a hit, taken by surprise, but I managed to dodge out of the way by jumping. I look at Spyro - he was thrown at the ice pillar and noticeably stunned by impact.

 _Competence - Mend the Flesh - Spyro_

He's still stunned though - and the Ice King is preparing to make another swing! This time it's an overhead strike, and I'm not sure if Spyro will survive being between floor and mace. I act before I can think, dashing to him and pushing him away - and the mace is falling on top of me as I slip by… But I'm too slow, this will hurt…

The mace hits, but not the intended target. Sparks fly everywhere, and I feel strange pulling pressure on my wing-shoulder… Gamma! Gamma blocked the impact!

Good job, my faithful Add-on, I thought, slipping aside and glancing at him. He does not look good, his lines got dimmer and emit chiming noise.

 _Competence - Mend the Flesh - Gamma_

Looks better already. And Spyro helps by setting the Ice King on fire! Okay, crazy idea time.

"Distract him!" I yelled at Spyro and circled around the gigantic skeletal king. He tries to follow me, but Spyro charges at him from behind and hits his leg in the shin from behind. Actually that works better than I expected, the giant falls on his knee and shakes his head, disoriented and confused. I waste no time and pounce on his back, quickly turn around - head to head - and try to pry off his armor with my claws and Gamma. And at this moment, the ice king stands up, and I feel COLD.

"Fu-"

And then he's on fire again. Well, not on fire, but the cold is gone. Come on Xan, do something!

I decide to go for the spots where his armor connects together - or would be connecting, judging by rotten remains of leather. I clinged to the undead giant and forced Gamma's claws into the joint - my add-on ringed in tension as armor on Ice King's arm creaked and, eventually, snapped. The sudden disappearance of tension surprised me, took me off guard and threw me off him. Although, got to admit, he dropped his mace, too.

And picked up sword instead.

Moment later he summoned even more ice shards at us. This time, they cover too much of an area to dodge. I felt ice shard impale into my flesh, piercing my scales, making me groan in pain. Spyro got hit, too. Damn it, but we're getting somewhere.

"Alright, Spyro, you ready?" I ask the purple dragon. He nods and replies, "Let's do this again!"

Again I distract the Ice King while Spyro rams his shin. Again I'm on top of him, this time prying off armor from his other arm. With a snapping sound it gives in, and he stands back up - but this time I cling to his back tight.

"Xan!" I hear Spyro's voice, "Look! There's some sort of crystal in his ribcage!"

"Keep him warmed up, Spyro! I'll try to-AH!" I hold on tight as he shakes wildly. My hind legs slip off and I nearly let go of him, but manage to hang on by a miracle.

But I did manage to get a glance inside his armor. Indeed, there was crystal in skeletal chest, throbbing and pulsing with energy. Spyro, again, sets him on fire, as he changes his weapon from shortsword to zweihander. Oh and he seems to be more proficient with it, too.  
And there is another problem. I can't get a good grip with both my claws and Gamma to pry his chestpiece open. I need help.

"Knock him on his knees, Spyro!" I shout as Ice King once again tries to shake me off. I barely hang on - thankfully, Gamma's grip helps - and brace for the moment he falls. However, this time, instead of getting up slowly, he sort-of bounced upright, using his sword as awkward support stick.

"Again!" I shout at Spyro, my throat dry from the experience, "AGAIN!"

He charged again, and as Ice King started falling again, I used my tail - awkwardly - to lash at his elbow joint.

It worked! He dropped his bloody sword and fell flat on his face.

"Spyro! Help! I can't pry his cuirass…" I don't need to finish as purple dragon pushes his claws into the armor seam on one side and does his best to pull the seam apart. I jab Gamma into the similar seam on the other side, and, after a few long seconds, Ice King's armor snaps in half, revealing his skeletal torso.

We jump away as skeletal king stands up. His crystal heart throbs and pulses with corrupted power, I can see streams of dark energy flow from it to his bony limbs.

 _Competence - Courageous Dash - Ice King_

 _Competence - Particle Ray - Ice King_

He still tries to resist his fate, but we both see crystal heart cover in cracks as Gamma's beam hit it. More, more! Spyro lobs a fireball at his ribcage, but it does not seem to do much damage.

 _Competence - Planar Blast - Ice King_

As expected, the shockwave did not do much damage to the skeleton, but the heart lost few pieces. The undead king was slowing down, as with each throb, more pieces fell of his heart.

This is where I felt sad for him. I mean, the Wide Angle described him as rightful ruler of these lands… Stuck in a perpetual nightmare.

Time to put an end to this nightmare then.

 _Competence - Planar Blast - Ice King_

The heart shatters, debris fly through the holes between ribs. The skeleton's glowing eyes dim as it collapses into a heap of bones.

"Adversaries Purified"

 _5000 experience points received._

 _4000 credits received._

"Hey, we did it!" I say with a smirk, "Now… what's up with Volteer?.." my smirk turns into a frown.

He was watching our battle with fear, it seemed. And when we emerged victorious, he tried to make like boulder and not stand out. However, he did a poor job of being a boulder, seeing how he whimpered and whined and tried to crawl away when we approached him again.

"Well, shit. Looks like he completely lost it," I sigh.

"Is there anything we can do to help him?" Spyro asks. I shake my head in response.

"I highly doubt it. A broken body can be fixed with ease. A broken mind…" I pause, raising eyebrow, "Huh?"

I was hearing a chime… Similar to the one I heard back at the temple when I met Gamma.

"What the?!" Sparx exclaims and darts behind Spyro.

I look up and see what I think is another Add-On descend from the cave ceiling.

"Uh, Hi?" I say to it.

"Interesting," comes a response. Very feminine voice, sounding almost like a xylophone, "You intrigue me"

"Thanks?" I don't know how to read the message.

"You're welcome!" it chimes in response. I can feel it look at us all, evaluating us, "Very intriguing, indeed. Many possibilities, yes"

"What in the world are you?" Sparx asked, peeking from below his brother's wing.

"I am self-designated as Lambda. An Add-On of draconian metaphysical nature. Like the one your companion possess," her lines pointed at Gamma.

"Lambda? Uh… Listen…" I lick my lips nervously, "My name is Alexandr. I am on a holy mission to purify the world. I seek allies to assist in my mission…"

"Don't mind him, he's just a loon!" Sparx interjected, receiving a soft swat from his brother.

"You want me to join efforts with you. I assume this will increase the chance of your success," Lambda chimes, "Coincidentally, I wish to get out from this location. Your offer is beneficial to us both"

"Really? You want to get out of here?" I tilt my head and scratch behind my horns. huh, feels good, actually, "Why didn't you leave on your own?"

"I am metaphysically bound to this place. I can not leave on my own volition," Lambda chimed back, "As for why I want to leave, I crave for new knowledge. This place holds no more new data for me..."

"Continue not," I interrupted her, "I will gladly take you with me, Lambda. Can you tell me what skills do you possess?"

"My analytical skills allow me to deal with various ailments and weakening effects, and treat them," Lambda responds, floating closer. Unlike Gamma, her lines glow soft cyan color, "Also I can cause different duration damage effects on adversaries, should the need arise. But I myself is a bit fragile for direct confrontation"

"Understood. I gladly accept your help, Lambda. Any objections, Gamma?"

"Nope, boss," my first Add-On responds.

 _Add-On Lambda has joined your party!_

Lambda takes spot on my right wing shoulder. Comparing to Gamma, she is, indeed, more feminine, more curvy, so to say. Unlike Gamma, she only has one 'claw', and has five 'fingers', two of which were separate, and other two were joined in U-shape. The fifth was the top one, index finger, if you prefer.

"Hey, hey, hey! Looking good, Lambda, Gamma!" I smile and flare my both Add-Ons.

"Oh! Wait a second!" Lambda chimes, "I see your goal was liberating this electric draconkin male?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, it seems he's completely lost it…" I sigh. Volteer kept trying to crawl away from us, crying and whimpering.

"I can help you with that," Lambda noted, and her lines glowed brighter for a moment.

 _Competence - Frequency Modulation - Volteer The Storm Guardian_

Volteer just… Stops. Dead in his tracks, so to say.

Then he blinks.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice.

Then he speaks.

"Whuh?" his voice is muffled by the heavy muzzle he's wearing, "Whu urr yuu?"

"Hoo boy. Let's get this thing off him," Sparx mutters and flies towards Volteer's face, "Hold still big guy, I'll get you out…"

* * *

The Chronicler was breathing heavily. He had to return to his library to grab four more elemental constructs. After another encounter with a dried-up dragon he lost one of his contraptions, and, expecting more resistance, decided to play it safe.

He felt uneasy about this whole ordeal. He felt he really should not be here.

And the parchments he kept finding were not helping at all.

"Chief Archivist note: YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE."

"Chief Archivist note: You REALLY should not be here"

The final parchment he found before another ominous-looking door said, "Chief Archivist note: Turn back NOW, _Memoram_. This is the POINT OF NO RETURN for you. YOU. SHOULD. NOT. BE. HERE. Period. GO. BACK. Period."

 _Memoram_. This is… WAS his name. When he was… Alive. Alive? Well, he was not dead… Or was he?..  
The Chronicler shook his head. This was in the past. Now was more important. After the final parchment, he had an urge to actually meet this 'Chief Archivist' and have a talk with him.

What in the world was HIS library hiding?

The door in front of him opened with ominous creaking. The Chronicler squinted, looking into the opened way.

Another library, with bookshelves, books and scrolls… But this one looked nothing like his library. The shelves were made from smooth polished wood, the books were more compact, and looked differently. Alien, even. But what actually drew his attention was in the distance.

Books. Huge books. If some books in his library could be used as door-stoppers, those books could easily hold Warfang gates open.

The Chronicler carefully walked towards one of them. This one seemed to be… disturbed. It kept shivering and trying to open… and, as Chronicler closed in to it, he realized that the book was… much bigger than he saw it at first. He was standing on a balcony of sorts, and those books were going down, down, down… into seemingly endless abyss.

The Chronicler rose his paw hesitantly and reached out to the book. He felt fine leather of the cover shiver under his fingers. 'Last page,' he commanded with a thought and flipped the cover open.

The book screeched - making the old dragon back away - and its pages flipped with moan-like sound, stopping at the final one.

Then it flipped as another page was added.

Then another.

And another.

The Chronicler inched forward to the book and peeked at flipping pages.

And then he recoiled in dread.

He had seen this many times - history writing itself. But this book, whoever it belonged to, contained only two words.

A desperate plea, repeating over and over again.

" _ **KILL ME**_ "

* * *

"A purple dragon named Spyro. Amazing," Volteer mused, looking at said dragon, "Of course, there were unsubstantiated rumors of a purple dragon countless generations ago, but most consider it hearsay, gossip, legend" Oh, dear Ancestors. He's giving me _migraine_. I swear, his chatter is like a status-inflicting competence on its own! "It's hard to believe, difficult to fathom, amazing to comprehend...er...um..." He finally seems to notice me. Oh, goodie. "Um… And… who are you?"

"Hi" I say, "You must be Volteer. Name's Alexandr, or Xan for short, nice to meet you. Now let's get the fuck out of here before Royal Guardian arrives." I saw him frown at my foul language and quickly add, "A dragon made of ice, and he's very pissed off about you, apes, Cynder and us being here. I'd even say he's in a killer mood."

"A dragon made of ice? That's preposterous, unbelievable, imp-"

And this is when the ceiling of the cavern collapsed. Well, not the whole ceiling, but large part of it, revealing that this cave was more of a dome.

Oh, and guess who crashed right through it.

"YOU!"

I felt my ears ring again and migraine from Volteer speech intensify.

"By King-Empress twin wings and tails! Are you deaf? Or just completely and utterly retarded?"

Keep shouting like that, and I will be deaf alright.

Massive shimmering body emerged from the floating ice dust, making a step towards us. I think I heard Volteer's jaw fall on the floor. That, or he dropped a brick.

"Pray tell me, you little colorless shit, what part of 'I WILL FUCKING MURDER YOU INTO OBLIVION' YOU DID NOT UNDERSTAND?!" the Guradian's eyes drilled into me, Gamma and Lambda. If looks could kill, I'd be deader than dead.

"Well..." I began, but got rather rudely interrupted:

"Shut the fuck up! You are obviously too retarded to form a coherent reply!"

"Now listen here!" Volteer shouted angrily, "There are whelps in here, so watch your language!"

"Shut your mouth-hole, sparkly slave!" He roared at Volteer, "You and your kin should have never ever been granted any kind of freedom!"

He then menacingly pressed his face at Volteer, making the yellow dragon back away a bit, "You electricity-suckers are only good for menial, tiny work that does not require any sort of developed intelligence! Or even less! I wouldn't even trust you to pull a bloody LEVER, you moron would find about a hundred ways to injure yourself doing that!"

"W-why I never… What do you… you!" Volteer seemed to be both greatly offended and out of words to express how much he was offended.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP! I NEVER ASKED YOU A THING!" Ice dragon snapped at storm guardian, making him back up a bit more.

"Look, sir, we're sorry for the intrusion. We'll be off now, and you'll never see us again" Says Spyro, trying to salvage the situation.

Too bad the Royal Guardian is not very open about salvaging it.

"YOU TOO SHUT UP, MISERABLE RUNT!" the ice dragon shouts at Spyro, covering him in bits of icy spit.

"I have a growing urge to cause you lethal bodily harm," I say and look at Batter.

He nods with a stern look and says to me quietly, "Even Dedan hasn't been that much of an asshole after he turned..."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING ASSHOLE, YOU LITTLE TWAT?" the dragon glares at me and leans closer. Way too close to comfort. I can see his sharp teeth and burning, ember-like eyes… Full of insanity and hatred.

Wait, what?

"Uh, I do believe you are hearing things," Volteer noted, "He did not call you such name…"

Wait… Did he hear what Batter said about him?

"Must have something to do with him being a Royal Guardian," my mentor responds. I nod and look straight at ice dragon.

"Matter of fact, I just did, you ear-dead, ice-brained shithead," now that I have his full attention, I look straight into his eyes, and say slowly, "Guardian! I will only say this once. Let us leave or I. Will. Destroy. You." I emphasize on the final part of the sentence. I see Spyro, Sparx and Volteer stare at me with expressions ranging from 'Did you just flipped off an eldritch abomination?' and 'Your funeral'

Silence filled the cave for a few moments, then the dragon replied to my threat:

"Wow" Suddenly his voice normalized for a moment, "You ARE retarded" then he bursts out laughing, "What, in the name of Queen-Emperor, gave you this idea?" He stops laughing and once again his face is all the way into my personal space, " **I am Cryos Dante, guardian of The Freezer! This. Is. My. Land.** _ **IT AIN'T SHIT WITHOUT ME!**_ " He rears and stomps his front paws, " **Insolent worms! I will murder you all! It will be a favor to the world to end your pathetic lives NOW!** "

 _"Cryos Dante!"_ I shouted. It seemed that as I did, all sounds in the world stopped.

 _"You have brought corruption into these lands"_

 _"We tried to reason with you, but it seems that you are too mad, too spiteful to let it go."_

 _"Now, I have no other choice but to fulfill my holy mission."_

I reared, flaring my wing-like Add-Ons. I felt energy course through my very being, through Gamma and Lambda. Then I stomped my front paws on the floor of former dome-cavern. I look up at giant ice dragon in front of me. He's at least three times bigger than I am, hell, maybe even more. He easily can turn me into paste with one strike of his paw. And yet, I grin. I feel power build-up inside me. It wants out.

And so, for the first time on this adventure, I hear familiar words - but these words come from my throat, shaped by my vocal cords, born inside my lungs, and coming from my own mind

Three simple words they are.

 _"Purification In Progress."_

But, oh damn, how satisfying it is to say them.

 _ **BOSS TIME.**_

"WORTHLESS WORM! I'LL CUT YOUR FACE OFF AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR ASS TO WIPE OUT THAT INSOLENT GRIN OF YOURS!" I hear Cryos roar in pure rage.

"Try me!" I snarl back at him and jump to the side to avoid a barrage of ice shards. Gamma instantly fires off a Neutron ray at Cryos.

 _Competence - Neutron Ray - Cryos Dante_

 _Competence - Battle Rally_

 _Competence - Direct Amplification - Cryos Dante_

However I also see Spyro and even Volteer stand in battle stance, about to join the fray.

"Stay out of this!" I shout, "You are no match for him!"

"That's nonsense, hogwash, folly!" Volteer disagreed, "We'll get him! Besides, I feel deeply offended by that rapscallion's behavior!"

Oh, right. Battle Rally.

Oh, thanks for the distraction, by the way. I barely managed to dodge the next strike. His paw strikes the ground close to me, small bits of ice and rock fly in every direction, and the shockwave from impact knocks me off my feet.

Cryos raised his paw for another strike, but it gets zapped by Volteer. Royal Guardian instantly switches his attention to the electric dragon, and gets another lightning to the face.

 _Competence - Neutron Ray - Cryos Dante_

And a neutron ray for good measure.

The ice dragon rears and lets out deafening roar, stomping his paws on the floor. I once again thrown off my feet, and so is Spyro who is circling around Cryos - looking for the opening. Volteer lets out another bolt of lightning, but he already looks exhausted…

I quickly scramble back at my feet, reach for my satchel. Picking up a slice of silver flesh, I shouted, "Hey, Volteer! Catch!" and tossed it at the electric dragon, then added quickly, "No time! Eat it, ask questions later!" I roll out of the way of another strike.

 _Competence - Wide Angle_

 _Cryos Dante HP ? CP ?_

 _Corrupted Royal Guardian of Dante's Freezer. First Boss._

Wow. That's it?

"Batter, how tough is he?" I hiss to my mentor… who is nowhere to be seen.

"Royal guardians are very strong in battle, powered by their own corruption and world's ruler energies" comes a reply from somewhere behind me, "And they resist your attempts to scan them…"

"And you just telling me this NOW?!" I turn around to face him…

Bad, BAD idea. Before anything, I feel a large paw hit my side, throwing me aside. Ho fuck, it HURTS.

Collision and slide on the floor hurt even more, despite the floor being icy and slippery.

"Boss, gittup! No time!" Gamma pushes me off the floor as if he was my wing. Just in time to avoid another barrage of ice shards. Yeah, no direct impacts, but a lot of indirect ones from shattering ice spikes. Gamma and Lambda attempt to cover me, but they can't deflect everything. Although my armor does provide some protection, it's not really enough.

 _Competence - Mend the Flesh - Alexandr_

 _Competence - Direct Amplification - Cryos Dante_

"You should also know that Royal Guardians possess resistance to statuses…" The Batter continued, but I interrupted him:

"That would be useful to know **BEFOREHAND**!" I bark at him, focussing on not being hit by any more of his swipes.

Easier said than done. The bastard is relentless! He gives me no chance to strike back, except for occasional blast from Gamma and Lambda. And as battle went on, Cryos seemed to only get more aggressive.

I glance at Volteer and see that he still looks at the piece of silver flesh in hesitation. Half-growling, half groaning, I turn to see where Spyro is. He's behind Cryos, breathing fire at his hind legs. 'Cause that'll help.

I dash towards Volteer, jump and slap his face, "Come on! Eat it! Restores energy!" I explain as fast and short as I can.

"Metabolism…" he began but I interrupted him while dodging another barrage of ice shards and a rather large ice spike Cryos spat at me, "Magic! Ask LATER!"

He seemed to take the explanation and quickly downed the silvery meat.

"Interesting…" I heard him mumbling, before dashing to the side, swiping me off my feet to pull me away from another barrage of ice shards, "This, study later! Combat now!"

Good to know. I'm back on my feet, now there's three of us fighting Cryos. Alright, what's the plan, I think as I look at Volteer and Spyro. The purple dragon keeps trying to roast the guardian's rear. With little to no effect, sadly.

"Stun him, Volteer!" I shouted, re-casting my Battle Rally. The electric dragon nods quickly,and launches a ball of thundering lightnings at Cryos. He watches the yellow sparkling orb fly in his direction with dismissive expression… Until Volteer fired a single bolt at it, making it explode with deafening bang. Sparks, ice debris and dust flies everywhere, as Cryos collapses on his chest, shaking his head slightly. The scales on his snout are shattered and cracked.

"Woah!" I heard Spyro's voice as I ran towards the shimmering dragon. Not really thinking, I jumped up on his snout, clinging on the cracks. 'Come on, faster, faster!' I think as I climbed over his muzzle onto his forehead and slipped between his horns onto his back. To my surprise, I found an unarmored spot between his wings. Before I even can think it, Gamma flares up and jabs its 'claws' into the soft spot, causing the great dragon to shriek in pain and shake violently. I hang on to the wing with my paws and Lambda's aid.

Cryos stood up and shook once again, flapping his wings - and throwing me off. I land on the cavern floor on my feet and slide a bit as my claws make small grooves in the floor.

"Insolent worms!" the ice dragon growls, huffing a cloud if cold steam from his mouth, "You know nothing! That did not even hurt me!"

He gets a _Neutron Ray_ from Gamma for his trouble. Spyro, in the meantime, latched onto the dragon's tail and slowly made his way over Cryos' croup, breathing fire every now and then - melting those ice scales off him. The ice giant, in response, exhaled an ice cloud at Volteer, encasing him in a crystalline prison.

"Lambda! Can you do something about this?!" I shout as I run and slide underneath Cryos, Gamma and my tail blade lashing on his plated belly, shattering some more plates.

"One moment…" Lambda glows a bit brighter, "Freeze. I see…" She flashed bright cyan, and the ice crystal that imprisoned Volteer dissipated, "Done!"

And then I feel a strong paw grab me by my head and abruptly lift me up. Even though I can't see, I know for sure it belongs to Cryos, as I desperately struggling to get out, make him release me. I claw at him and Gamma and Lambda lash at his paw in efforts to get me out.

And then he shook me up. I swear I could feel my neck strain and nearly snap from sudden motion. And he did that again. And again. And…

When he makes another shake, Volteer charged at Cryos with loud, vicious roar, his paws push ice dragon chest and his jaws snap inch away from his neck. He let me go, sending me flying into a wall. Ouch. I slide down and barely have time to roll out of the way as Cryos and Volteer wrestle, trying to get at each other throats.

 _Competence - Battle Rally_

 _Competence - Direct Amplification - Cryos Dante_

 _Competence - Neutron Ray - Cryos Dante_

Spyro clings to the dragon's side, angrily clawing at his icy hide. Sparx is nowhere to be seen.

Well, keep lashing! I get to Cryos' hind leg and start clawing at it. Gamma instantly jabs into his flank, and Lambda goes to stab his groin. He shudders and almost falls over under our combined assault, but managed to remain upright. This time, _his_ teeth snapped dangerously close to Volteer's neck. And again, this time even closer. Oh fuck. We have to do something and fast.

The best idea I could come up with was to attack his foot-paw. So, I made both my Add-ons to jab their claws into it as hard as they could.

That actually manages to throw him off-balance, as his leg slips and he collapses on the floor. Volteer reaches out and his jaws clench on the ice dragon's neck.

Not that it impressed him in any way, as he continued to scratch and stab Volteer with his claws, not losing even a tiny bit of his furious vigour. However, his ice armored scales are battered and cracked, and missing completely at some places.

Another _Neutron Ray_ pierces Cryos' skin where his 'armor'' is missing, causing him to roar in pain and lash his tail at me - while summoning another ice shards barrage, directed at Volteer. That makes him release Cryos' throat to dodge, and ice dragon stands back up, quickly.

" **MORONS**! What are you trying to achieve here?!" he roars… but his voice slightly distorted, his throat bleeding odd, viscous black fluid where Storm Guardian's teeth pierced the scales, "Didn't you hear me the first time?! Me and this land are CONNECTED! It AIN'T SHIT **WITHOUT ME**!"

He wanted to add something else, but Volteer shot an impressive bolt of lightning straight into Cryos' throat, making him shut up and gargle as who-knows-how-much volts of electricity passed through his innards. Ouch. He collapses on the floor, shattering more of his armor - and his wings' membranes in the process.

Spyro wastes little to no time and lashes at the revealed soft spots once covered by the ice armor. Cryos growls and groans, trying to stand back up, his hind leg not working properly from the wounds I inflicted. His movements became slow and sluggish, and that viscous black fluid leaks from his wounds - not just the ones Volteer left on the giant's throat.

"Xan! I've seen that blood before!" Spyro shouted to me, "Some of the apes became a kind of freaky abominations and were bleeding that stuff all the time!"

"Not NOW, Spyro!" I shouted, taking in the information, clinging to Cryos' side and using my add-ons to lash at his flesh, myself focussing on holding on and using healing competences. However, it was obvious that we're winning…

And then Cryos swung his bony, membraneless wings in a scissor-like motion, sharp claws and fingers whistle an inch away from Volteer's neck. No, I will have none of that. With that thought Gamma jams his claws into the wing's shoulder joint, making the ice dragon rear and roar in pain… only to flop moment later because his hind leg was no longer functioning..

The impact threw me and Spyro off him, and shatter whatever was left of his armor. Cryos was trying to scramble back on his paws, but they kept slipping on his black blood. Eventually he stopped moving and was just laying there, motionless, breathing heavily.

"Finish him," I hear Batter saying sternly. I nod and walk towards his head, with full intention to end this…

* * *

And suddenly, the book stopped. The Chronicler took a few deep breaths to calm down before peeking into it again.  
The last "KILL ME" plea was cut in the middle, the ink line sloppily jumping down to a next line, writing two more words that barely made any sense:  
" **THANK YOU** "

* * *

"You're not… him… are you?.."

I feel like I walked headfirst into a brick wall.

"What?" I stare at the ice dragon in front of me.

"Yet… You look just… like…" Cryos coughed, more black fluid seeping from the corners of his mouth, "And… still not him…"

"What are you talking about?" I feel confused. What the hell happened to him all the sudden?!

"Finish him," Batter repeated in a more stern tone. I wave off.

"Cryos? What the hell are you talking about?" I ask the Royal Guardian.

"Kid… You… You've set something… Something big in motion…" the dragon rasped, struggling to keep the black viscous blood from flooding his throat, "Kid…"

"Finish. Him. Now," Batter bumped me with his bat, and almost knocked me off balance.

"Shush you!" I growl, "Cryos! What is going on? What… corrupted you?"

He looks at me wearily and exhales weakly:

"Kid… F-find Inductus… F-find… Inductus… She… She knows what… to… do…"

he coughs up some more 'blood', and finally says one last thing:

"K-kid… It's y-your... birthday…"

And then his body slowly goes limp as he exhales one last time, before he becomes completely motionless.

"Adversaries purified" I say with a sigh of relief.

 _5000 experience points received_

 _3000 credits received_

 _3 luck tickets received_

 _2 silver flesh received_

 _Ignis card received_

"Well, that was something!" I heard Sparx's voice. I scoff quietly.

"Well, indeed, this was one glorious, splendiferous, magnificent battle!" Volteer chimed in, "Although I have not a slightest idea, guess, estimation on who that Inductus could be…"

"We'll figure it out later," I waved off, "Right now, I want to do the first thing I wanted to do when I got here…"

"Let me guess: get out of here?" Sparx chimed in.

"Bingo!" I said, making finger guns at Sparx, "Uh, one problem though… I'm kind-of grounded…"

Yeah, despite me having both 'wings' now I'm still unable to fly.

"Well, perhaps I could give you two a lift?" Volteer smiled.

"I can fly on my own, thanks," Spyro replied, "Just… Give me some time to collect myself before taking off..."

* * *

We fly back to the Temple over the course of the next three days. As we land on the balcony/landing pad, we are greeted by Ignitus, Karter and Zacharie… And Batter, too.

I slip from Volteer's back onto his arm and slide down on the floor… and instantly feel the burning glare of Ignitus on me.

"Alexandr," he said sternly, in a demanding tone, "Explain yourself this instant"

"Uhhh…" I feel at a loss and look at Volteer and Spyro, hoping to get their support.

"Ignitus, my dear friend," Volteer said, making a step forward, "You seem to be upset about something this young did? I need to admit that his help was..."

"The thing is, dearest brother," Ignitus interrupted Volteer's speech, "That I never sent HIM out to help you. I did send Spyro out, yes - but I await explanation on why and _how_ did he got there"

I gulp and look at Batter, trying to get at least some support from him. He looks at me with an expression that says 'suffer'.

"W-well... I gazed into the pool of visions…" I said slowly, sitting on my haunches, pressing my index fingers together, and trying to look away from that gaze, "And saw Spyro being hurt badly…" I lift my paw seeing how Ignitus wanted to say something, "But you were nowhere to be seen, so… I… Umm…" I grin nervously as both Ignitus and Volteer glare at me, "I decided to go out and help?"

"And how exactly did you get there so fast?" Ignitus asked with… well, the best I can describe that is 'sarcastic curiosity'.

"I, umm, I took a shortcut?" I blurted out.

I get the 'oh really?' looks from all the dragons present. Including the 'fly one.

"Look, I'm sorry, alright?!" I say sheepishly, "I just could not just sit there and do nothing while Spyro was dying out there!"

Volteer shakes his head, and Ignitus' frown deepens.

"This is not an excuse to run away like you did, with no warning at all!" he said, "For that, you're grounded. You will remain in the Temple until further notice," I frown and he continues, "It's for your own good. You must understand that running off like this could get you killed!"

I huff and raise my paws in surrendering gesture, "Alright, alright, geesh! I give!" for that, I get a surprised look from Spyro and angry glare from Batter, "I still going to need some time to recuperate…"

A cough from Volteer followed.

"Now, if we're done with sermonizing…" the Storm Guardian said, "It's good and fortunate to be back home! We have so much to discuss, but first - is there anything to eat? I'm positively starving, famished, ravenous even! And you know, the food for thought ain't good when your stomach is empty!"

"Yeah, something lavish would be very welcome right now" I chuckle.

"Uh-huh… Just don't forget to wash that mouth of yours. With soap," Sparx chuckled, making Ignitus shoot another glance at me.

* * *

An old, gray dragon rose his head wearily from the warm cavern floor.

"W-what?.. H-how?.. The hater… is gone?.."

Footsteps.

"Father."

"You have much to explain."

* * *

 ** _A/N: The lyrics sung by Alexandr are from "Wings of Destiny" by Gamma Ray._**

 ** _Although I do not do this often, the battle theme with Cryos Dante is MDK2 Kurt Boss Theme._**


End file.
